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ANCIENT EGYPT: 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 



* Speak thou, whose massy strength and stature scorn 
The power of years— pre-eminent, and placed 
Apart, to overlook the circle vast." 



REVISED BY D, P. KIDDER. 



PUBLISHED BY LANE & SCOTT, 

FOR TBfE SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL 
CHUECH, 200 MULBEERY-STEEET. 

JOSEPH LONGKING, PRINTER 
1851. 



V* 



Gftt 

-m Mrs Isaac R. Hltt 
Judge and Mrs. * 

jnly 3, 1933 



CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER I 

TOPOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF EGYPT. 

Divisions of the country — Mountains— The Nile, its sources, 
cataracts, and inundation — Climate — Fertility — Calendar of 
Egypt — The Oases — Siwah, and its oracle of Jupiter Ammon — 
The Red Sea— Passage of the Israelites, and the canal be- 
tween the two seas Page 5 

CHAPTER II. 

THE MOST REMARKABLE MONUMENTS OF EGYPT — DESCRIP. 
TION — INCIDENTS RELATING TO THEM AND THEIR HISTORY. 

Alexandria, Obelisks and Pompey's Pillar — Cairo — Heliopolis, the 
Pyramids and the Sphinx — Memphis and Mummy Pits — " The 
Field of Zoan" — Tombs and Grottoes of Beni Hassan — Aby- 
dos and Tablet of Kings — Denderah, Temple and Zodiac — 
Thebes, the Memnonium and Palace of Medinet Abou — Vocal 
Colossus— Luxor and Great Hall of Karnac — Esneh — Edfou — 
Syene and the island of Elephantine — Island of Phils . . 23 

CHAPTER III. 

HISTORY OF EGYPT, ESPECIALLY AS CONNECTED WITH THE 
SCRIPTURES. 

Three sources of information — Chronological agreement of mon- 
uments w r ith the Bible narratives — Manetho — Eratosthenes — 
Survey of dynasties — Building of pyramids — Age of Osirtasen 
— Invasion of shepherd kings — The eighteenth dynasty — Exo- 
dus of the Israelites— Solomon's alliance with Egypt — Con- 
quest of Rehoboam by Shishak, with the monument in com- 
memoration — Wars of Egypt with Assyria — Cambyses and 
his conquest of Egypt — The age of the Ptolemies — Prophecies 
in the Bible respecting Egypt— Visit of the holy Child Jesus — 
Conclusion 60 



4 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

HIEROGLYPHICAL METHOD OF WRITING. 
Origin of language— Old Egyptian language — History of discov- 
ery — Rosetta stone — Labors of Dr. Young and Champollion — 
Expedition from France and Tuscany into Egypt— Death of 
Champollion — Nature of hieroglyph] cal writing— Present con- 
dition of hieroglyphical studies Page 92 

CHAPTER V. 

RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 
Origin of idolatry— Orders of gods in Egypt— Gods of the first 
order — Osiris and Isis — Animal worship and symbolism— Theo- 
logy and remnants of patriarchal doctrine— Sacred animals — 
Religious festivals — Opinions on a future state and the judg- 
ment to come — Process of embalming 117 

CHAPTER VI. 

ON THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
Principle of caste — Kings and nobles — The priesthood— The sol- 
diers and arms of the Egyptians — Their chariots — The hus- 
bandmen, traders, and shepherds — The laws, courts of judica- 
ture, and methods of punishment— Domestic life— Description 
of houses in city and country, flower-gardens and pleasure- 
grounds — The vine and fruit trees of Egypt — Festivities and 
entertainments — Furniture, food, cookery, and amusements — 
Hunting, fowling, and fishing — Arts and manufactures — Glass, 
linen, dyeing, paper from papyrus, and leather — Boats and 
ships of war — Use of precious metals in gilding and casting — 
Mechanical forces— Medicine — Dress and decorations . . 137 

CHAPTER VII. 

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BIBLE, AS DERIVED FROM THE EGYP- 
TIAN MONUMENTS. 

Testimony of the monuments in verification of the Mosaic re- 
cords — Alleged difficulties and objections — History of Joseph 
and his brethren— Oppression of the Israelites in Egypt — The 
ten plagues and the deliverance — Construction of the taber- 
nacle— Murmurings in the desert — Nations conquered by the 
Israelites — Comparison of ancient and modern civilization, and 
conclusion .181 



ANCIENT EGYPT 

Its fiXonummts auir ^tstorj. 



CHAPTER I. 

TOPOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF EGYPT. 

The land of Egypt occupies an intermediate po- 
sition between Asia and Africa. Territorially 
belonging to the latter continent, some geogra- 
phers have, however, reckoned it in connection 
with the former, and others have assigned to Asia 
the eastern, and to Africa the western bank of the 
Nile. The Valley of Egypt, properly so called, 
is only about a third of the entire district water- 
ed by the Nile in its course from south to north ; 
the whole of which district lies as a fertile land 
between two deserts. The Valley of Egypt 
commences at Assouan and the Island of Ele- 
phantine, at the spot known as the first cataract. 
At this point two chains of mountains stretch 
themselves from south to north, inclosing the 
district of country watered by the Nile, and ac- 



ANCIENT EGYPT *. 



comparing it for three-fourths of the remainder 
of its course. The valley is then greatly extend- 
ed, and forms an extensive plain triangular in 
shape, which is intersected by the different 
branches of the Nile pouring itself into the 
Mediterranean Sea, 

Egypt is divided into three parts, Upper, Mid- 
dle, arid Lower. The first. Upper Egypt, bears 
the name of the Thebaid, from its ancient and 
principal city ; and the third, Lower Egypt, is 
best known as the Delta, from its resemblance 
in form to the figure of the fourth letter of the 
Greek alphabet. The mouths of the Nile are 
connected with one another by many canals 
which intersect the Delta, and there are several 
lakes lying along the border of the Mediterranean. 
Of the mountains which inclose the Egyptian 
valley, those on the western side are composed 
of a limestone formation, containing many fossil 
shells. Those on the eastern have, in addition 
to limestone, granite and sandstone ; and be- 
tween the islands of Philte and Assouan, is found 
that peculiar kind of rose-colored granite, known 
as the Syenite, of which so many of the inter- 
resting monuments of Egypt are formed. The 
mountains are of moderate elevation, and bare 
of vegetation from their bases to their summits. 
They are not equally distant from each other, so 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 7 

that the Egyptian valley varies in breadth, en- 
larging considerably as it advances towards the 
sea. In the granite region, the mountains are so 
near that there is only space for the river to pass ; 
while in the limestone district they are wider 
apart, and extend until they are ten miles asun- 
der, — the average width of the upper valley being 
about three miles. The Arabian or eastern chain 
finishes abruptly at Cairo, and the Libyan, or 
western, slopes gently down into the plain of the 
Delta. Defiles run off from these mountain- chains, 
on the one side to the shores of the Red Sea, and 
on the other towards the Oases in the Libyan 
Desert. From the coast of Egypt on the Medi- 
terranean Sea to the cataract near Assouan, is a 
space of five hundred and twenty miles ; and 
allowing for its limited breadth, the extent of 
the kingdom of Egypt has been reckoned to be 
somewhat less than the area of England. The 
surface of this narrow strip of country may be 
said to be convex, with a deep furrow in its 
centre, in which the Nile runs. Any overflow, 
therefore, of the banks of the river inundates 
to a large extent the surrounding district, even 
to the foot of the mountains — 

" Which like giants stand, 
To sentinel enchanted land." 

All the territory that the Nile waters becomes 



8 ANCIENT EGYPT I 

fruitful and is cultivated soil, while the remain- 
der is desert. It is not without cause, therefore, 
that Egypt has been spoken of as the offspring 
of the Nile. The deposits brought down in its 
repeated overflows from the mountains of Abys- 
sinia constitute its soil, which is replenished and 
fertilized every year, and rendered capable of 
bearing two or more crops. The country from 
year to year is, in consequence, gaming in eleva- 
tion, and the most ancient cities, which were 
originally built sufficiexitly high to be free from 
the inundation, are now periodically under water. % 
The soil is exceedingly porous, and the slime and 
manure left by the Nile make the labor of cul- 
tivation very easy, while cisterns, reservoirs, and 
channels, are constructed to assist in the work 
of irrigation. The Nile is certainly a mighty 
river, and in the unaided length of its course, 
receiving no tributary stream from Ilak in Nubia 
to the sea, it is without a parallel. Its whole extent 
is calculated to be upwards of two thousand five 
hundred miles. To the advantages which they 
derived from the Nile is to be ascribed the dis- 
position and practice of the Egyptians in render- 
ing it Divine honors, and in this, as in many other 
pitiable instances, the gifts of the one true God 
to his creatures were perverted by human folly 
and sin into the very means of banishing the re- 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 9 

membrance of him from their minds, and were 
made the occasion for the most degrading idola- 
try. They loved and served the creature rath- 
er than the Creator. The sources of the Nile 
were a subject of mystery to the ancient geogra- 
phers, which modern researches have not yet fully, 
cleared up. Herodotus, Eratosthenes, and Nero, 
prosecuted Inquiries with no conclusive results. 
In modern times, it has been conjectured that 
communication exists between the Nik and the 
Niger, and two distinct streams have been traced 
which pour their tributary waters into the up- 
per Nile. The one, the Astaborcs, or Tacazze, 
and the other, the Blue Nile, or Astapus, the 
sources of which, lying in the Mountains of the 
Moon, have been traced, and mistaken for those 
of the Nile itself by Bruce and other travelers. 
Those of the White, or true Nile, have yet t- » be 
explored. 

The cataracts of the Nile have been the ob- 
jects of terror to the traveler, and of wonder to 
those who have read exaggerated descriptions 
of their greatness, as almost rivaling those of the 
newly-discovered western world. The cataract 
of Syene, the first on a journey from the Medi- 
terranean up the Nile, is the only one that ha:: 
a claim to be treated of as belonging to ancient 
Egypt. It is a very simple and unpretending 






10 ANCIENT EGYPT \ 

fall of water, the grandeur and awful magnifi- 
cence of which have principally existed in the 
warm and vivid fancy of those who have written 
respecting it. Stories have been told of heights 
of two hundred feet, from which the water is 
precipitated, and of the noise being heard at the 
distance of many miles. It is at this point that 
the two chains of mountains take their rise, and 
the water of the Me descending from Abyssinia 
passes over the range of rocks by which they are 
connected. The river in consequence is broken 
up into a number of small streams, which 
boil and dash against the rocks ; and the chan- 
nel, though navigable, is dangerous, and requires 
caution and skill in managing the boat. Here 
is the boundary of ancient Egypt and Ethiopia, 
and of modern Egypt and the district of Nubia. 
It is situated in latitude 24° N., about Hve hun- 
dred and twenty miles from the Mediterranean. 
The inundation of the Nile is the chief physi- 
cal phenomenon of the countr} r , and there is every 
reason to believe that it continues much the same 
now as in ancient times. It is a most interest- 
ing sight to observe the changes which gradually 
take place in the river. Without any apparent 
cause or premonitory sign, the water becomes 
turbid and red, gradually overflows its banks, 
and inundates the surrounding country; and as 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 11 

gradually, having reached its height, retires 
within its proper limits, and recovers its clear 
and limpid appearance. The cause of this phe- 
nomenon is now understood to be the rain which 
falls periodically in Abyssinia, and which begins 
in the month of March. It becomes apparent in 
the increase of the Nile about the end of June, 
and the river enlarges in quantity for three 
months, taking the six months following for its 
restoration to its usual size. At the cataracts it 
rises forty feet, at Thebes about thirty-five, and 
at Rosetta its increased height is about three 
feet and a half. It continues only about three or 
four days at its greatest and least elevations re- 
spectively. During the time of the inundation, 
in the month of September, Egypt is like a sea, 
out of which the cities and towns appear rising like 
so many islands ; and with the departure of the 
water the verdure becomes most luxuriant, and 
the soil fertile. As soon as the river rises, it is 
the business of the agriculturist to clear out the 
canals, which are opened in September to admit 
the incoming water, and shut again to retain it 
when the river falls. 

At the termination of the Egyptian valley, 
where the mountains diverge, is an opening 
through the western chain, by which the waters 
of the Nile are conveyed into the province of 



12 ancient egypt: 

Egypt called the Fayoum. Here was situated 
an immense lake, to serve as a mighty reservoir 
of water for use when the inundation did not 
rise to a sufficient height, and as a drain when 
the land was too much flooded. Thus it was 
rilled in an excessive, and emptied in a limited 
inundation. This district of the Fayoum is an 
appendage to the Valley of the Nile, and is one 
of the most valuable and fertile provinces of 
Egypt. 

The climate is not generally considered un- 
healthy, but the heat is very great, and the at- 
mosphere dry, no rain falling in Upper, and 
very rarely in Lower Egypt. Lightning is 
frequently seen, but it is seldom attended with 
thunder. It is owing to the dryness of the 
atmosphere that bread, fruits, and meal, have 
been found in the tombs in so good a state of 
preservation; that the perfumes of ancient Egypt, 
even after the lapse of ages, retain their fra- 
grance ; and that the inscriptions remain unin- 
jured and legible. The north-westerly is the 
most favorable and pleasant wind, and the 
southerly the most disagreeable and noxious. 
The latter prevails during April and May, and 
is known by the name of Khamseen. It is de- 
scribed as like the blast of a furnace, dry and 
of intense heat. A worse kind of wind, though 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 13 

not so frequent, is the simoom. This blows from 
the south-east. The atmosphere, while it rages, 
is changed to a red tinge, the sun becomes the 
color of blood, sand and dust are set in violent 
motion, and though it seldom lasts more than 
half an hour, it is always a severe and trying 
visitation. It is, of course, more painful in the 
open desert than in the cities of Egypt. 
Whirlwinds are not infrequent, and sand and 
dust are sometimes borne aloft by them to the 
height of five or seven hundred feet, and borne 
down again with such impetuosity, as to over- 
turn and bury any object which may come in 
their path. 

Some idea may be given of the fertility of 
Egypt by the statement, that the earth produces 
flowers and fruits during every month in the 
year. In November the seeds of wheat are 
sown as the Nile recedes within its banks ; the 
narcissus, the violet, the ragged robin, come out 
into blossom ; and it is the time for gathering 
the dates and the sebesten plums. In Decem- 
ber the trees lose their foliage ; but the wheat, 
herbs, and flowers cover the earth, and give it 
the aspect of a pleasant spring. January is the 
time for sowing lupins, beans, flax, and other 
seeds ; the orange-tree and the pomegranate 
come into blossom ; the ears of wheat show 



14 ANCIENT EGYPT I 

themselves in Upper Egypt, and in Lower Egypt 
they gather the sugar-cane, senna, and clover. 
In the month of February the fields are com- 
pletely covered with verdure. Rice is now sown, 
and barley reaped. Cabbages, cucumbers, and 
melons become ripe and ready for use. In March 
the trees and shrubs come into flower, and the 
wheat sown in October and November is ready 
for the sickle. During the first part of the month 
of April occurs the harvest of roses, an important 
season in the district of Fayoum. Then follows 
a second sowing of wheat, and the reaping of 
any sown in the end of the year, and clover 
yields a second crop. In May, wheat harvest 
continues ; the acacia-tree and the henna plant 
come into blossom, and early fruits, such as 
grapes, figs, dates, and the fruit of the carob- 
tree are gathered. In June, Upper Egypt has 
its harvest of the sugar-cane, and July is occu- 
pied in planting rice and maize, and getting in 
flax and cotton, and the grapes which grow in 
abundance round Cairo. The month of August 
yields a third crop of clover ; and in this month 
the great white lilies and jessamine come into 
blossom, the palm-trees and vines are laden with 
ripe fruit, and melons have already become too 
watery. The gathering of oranges, citrons, 
tamarinds, and olives, and the harvest of rice, 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 15 

bring in the month of September ; in October 
the general sowing time comes round again, 
amidst the odoriferous fragrance of the acacia 
and other trees. Beginning with the overflow 
of the Nile four seasons have been distinguished. 
The first, the wet season, extending from the 
middle of August to December, when fever and 
ophthalmia very frequently prevail. The second, 
or fruitful season, is from December to March, 
during which vegetation makes most rapid pro- 
gress, and the sun is moderately hot, the tempe- 
rature being about that of our summer months. 
The third season is the most unhealthy, and 
lasts from March to May. It is the time when 
the Khamseen winds prevail, and all nature feels 
their noxious influence. The fourth season is 
that which precedes the great inundation, and 
lasts from May to the time of the overflow. It 
will be apparent, from this brief survey of the 
Egyptian calendar, that the land of Egypt is 
one on which the Creator lavishes the bounties 
of his providence — a granary and fruitful place 
in the midst of the earth, abounding with all 
kinds of supply for the wants of man and beast. 
On the western shore of the Nile, and across 
the Libyan chain of mountains, are situated in 
the midst of the desert certain districts of fertil- 
ity and verdure, which have long since received 



16 ANCIENT EGYPT: 

the name of Oases. The word is a Coptic term, 
denoting an inhabited place, but has now become 
adopted into the English language. These oases 
are surrounded by the sands of the desert, and 
possess springs of water in the midst of the ste- 
rile waste. Poetically, they have been celebrated 
as isles of the blessed in the midst of the sandy 
ocean, which presents no trifling barrier in the 
path of the traveler who may wish to pay them 
a visit. Across this desert there is no beaten 
track, the sands being always shifting, and water 
becoming occasionally of fearful value. In these 
scenes it is that the optical delusion, known as 
the mirage, often occurs — the deceptive appear- 
ance of water in the midst of the sandy plain. 
The oases are four in number, the largest being 
that of El Kargeh. It is situated seven days' 
journey from Thebes, and is formed by several 
springs of water, which fertilize tracts of ground 
around them, inviting and delicious to the eye 
of the traveler who has crossed the desert. This 
oasis is reckoned to comprise one hundred miles ; 
but this estimate includes the intermediate de- 
sert between the fertile tracts. Here are the 
ruins of a temple and a grove of palm-trees, 
and a city named Kargeh, the eastern side of 
which overlooks the desert. It has considerable 
population, and there are besides several towns 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 17 

and villages on this oasis, with their temples 
and burying-places. One hundred miles from 
the great oasis is another, — the western, or oasis 
of Dakel, — inhabited by Bedouin Arabs, who live 
in twelve villages. Considerable quantities of 
indigo are manufactured in one of these villages, 
of which there is a large export. The little 
oasis — that of Bakariah — lies considerably to the 
north of these already mentioned. Its capital 
is Kasr, and it has four villages. It is fourteen 
miles long, and six miles broad. The most re- 
markable oasis is undoubtedly that of Siwah, 
celebrated for the ruins of the temple of Jupiter 
Amnion and the ancient oracle. This oasis is 
nine miles long, and two miles broad, abounding 
in dates, of which a large exportation takes place 
every year. The temple was built in the most 
fertile part of the oasis, and the statue of the 
god was of bronze, ornamented with emeralds 
and other precious stones. It was borne in a 
bark, or shrine of gold, and more than one hun- 
dred priests formerly officiated at the temple. 
The site is said to have been determined by the 
flight of a dove from Thebes. By the lips of 
the oldest priest the god is said to have delivered 
his oracles, which were amongst the most highly 
esteemed of all antiquity. The oracle was con- 
sulted by Hercules, Perseus, and others ; and 



13 ANCIENT EGYPT*. 

one of its last-recorded declarations is the flat- 
tery which it manifested towards Alexander the 
Great, in pronouncing him the son of Jupiter. 
With many other of the heathen oracles, it 
ceased to give utterance to its ambiguous coun- 
sels about the period of our Saviour's nativity. 

Sot far from the temple, in the same oasis, is 
the fountain of the sun. It is six' fathoms in 
depth, and small bubbles are constantly rising 
to the surface, the temperature becoming warm 
at night, and cold in the day. Belzoni visited 
the spot in 1816, and found it surrounded by a 
pleasant grove of palm-trees. This oasis is situ- 
ated five degrees to the west of Cairo, and is 
seldom visited by travelers. The city of Siwah 
contains a population of between two and three 
thousand persons. Cambyses, the Persian con- 
queror of Egypt, wished to destroy the temple, 
but was unable to cross the desert with his 
army. The oases now constitute the most 
valuable resting-places for caravans crossing the 
desert, and carrying on the trade between 
Egypt and the interior of Africa. 

°At the eastern boundary of Egypt lies the 
Red Sea. It is a gulf of the Indian Ocean, and 
by many,has been considered as originally con- 
necting the Mediterranean and Indian Seas— the 
upper part of the gulf, which now forms the 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 19 

Isthmus of Suez, having in course of time be- 
come filled up by the accumulation of the sands 
of the desert. The navigation of the Red Sea 
is dangerous, from the great number of sunken 
rocks, sand banks, and coral reefs, which are 
found in it. The red coral, which is abundant, 
gives the name to the sea. On the Egyptian 
side of it are bold promontories and lofty rocks, 
the space between the sea and the Nile being 
partially desert, and having valleys in certain 
places full of springs and covered with verdure. 
The northern arm of the Red Sea is the same 
distance from the Mediterranean as the city of 
Cairo. Within the fork made by the two arms 
of the sea is the desert of Sinai, and the scene 
of the encampments of the Israelites. At the 
extremity of the eastern arm is situated the town 
of Akabah. 

Far in the south, immediately on a line with 
the Egyptian frontier, is situated the old port of 
Egypt, Berenice. It is on the coast of the Red 
Sea. A road was made by Ptolemy Philadel- 
phus from this place to Coptos on the Nile, and 
the trade with Arabia and India was conducted 
from this port, the vessels thereby avoiding the 
difficult navigation of the northern parj, of the 
Red Sea. The place is now deserted, but has a 
fine harbor, and was formerly a large town. 



20 ancient egypt: 

The goods were transported from Berenice by 
camels, and ten wells mark in succession the 
course of the ancient caravans. To the north- 
west of Berenice lie the Emerald Mountains, the 
wealth of which remains inaccessible to the 
moderns. Farther north, on the coast of the 
Red Sea, is Cosseir, the place of passage for 
pilgrims to Mecca. It is situated at the termi- 
nation of a pleasant valley, opening from the 
Red Sea toward the Nile. 

Difference of opinion prevails as to the pre- 
cise spot at which the children of Israel effected 
their escape from the armies of Pharaoh by the 
passage of the Red Sea. It is not easy, owing 
to the shifting nature of the sandy shores, to 
determine with any certainty the position of the 
various localities mentioned in Scripture. Suez, 
once a place of considerable trade, is a poor, 
small town near the head of the gulf bearing 
its name. Below it are some shoals, which, ac- 
cording to Robinson, " are still left bare at the 
ebb, and the channel is sometimes forded — a 
distance of three or four miles from shore to 
shore/ ' Here, according to some authorities, 
the passage of the Israelites took place. Oth- 
ers, with more evidence in their favor, have ob- 
jected to this locality, as being inconsistent with 
the narrative in Exodus, and tending to divest 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 21 

it of its miraculous character. The breadth of 
the sea at Suez is such as would scarcely occu- 
py the Israelities a quarter of an hour in cross- 
ing, and according to the narrative of the Bible, 
the night was employed in the passage. An- 
other position has been described, to which we 
certainly give the preference. It is about thirty 
miles lower down the gulf, near Mount Attaka, 
where, in harmony with the Scriptural account, 
the Israelites were shut in by the sea, the des- 
ert, the mountain, and the army of Pharaoh. 
Here the gulf is about ten or twelve miles wide, 
and the opinion that here the miraculous passage 
of the Israelites took place, is confirmed by the 
names of many places in the locality. 

We must not fail to mention the efforts which 
have been made to unite the Mediterranean and 
Red Seas by means of a canal, and thus to open 
a direct communication between the south of 
Europe and the Indian Ocean. The difficulty 
to be overcome in this enterprise, and which has 
hitherto prevented its accomplishment, is the 
great difference of level between the two seas — 
the waters of the Red Sea being much higher 
than those of the Mediterranean. Passengers 
from India now cross the isthmus on camels, or 
in traveling vans drawn by Arabian horses. A 
canal was formerly cut, in part, if not altogether, 



22 ancient egvpt: 

between the two seas by some of the Egyptian 
kings, which has been to a great extent filled up 
by the accumulation of the sands of the desert. 
The emperor Napoleon, during his expedition 
to Egypt, in company with his engineers, dis- 
covered and followed for some distance the track 
of it, but was obliged to abandon the prosecution 
of the inquiry by reason of the sudden return 
of the tide. 

Under the rule of the Ptolemies, the whole 
country was divided into thirty-six provinces or 
nomes, which were probably of a much earlier 
origin. This division continued to prevail till the 
invasion by the Saracens, and the conquest of 
Egypt by the followers of Mohammed, A. D. 
640. According to the French system of geo- 
graphical arrangement, it is now composed of 
twenty-four departments. 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 23 



CHAPTER II. 

THE MOST REMARKABLE MONUMENTS OF EGYPT 

DESCRIPTION INCIDENTS RELATING TO THEM 

AND THEIR HISTORY. 

A description of the monuments of Ancient 
Egypt may be arranged according to various 
methods. It would be easy to begin with the 
most massive and magnificent, and then descend 
gradually to the more insignificant and minute ; 
or they might be taken in the order of time, 
beginning with those of the remotest antiquity, 
and concluding with such as are comparatively 
of modern date. If, like the fresh memorials 
of Herculaneum and Pompeii, they were before 
us in their complete and original state, it would 
be obviously most easy to follow them exactly 
as they stand — to journey on from city to city, 
and temple to temple, enumerating and describ- 
ing their peculiarities as we passed along. Time, 
however, has been busily employed on these 
ancient structures ; the sands of the desert are 
burying many of them out of our sight, new 
temples have been built out of the ruins of the 
old, and some of the most illustrious monuments 
of Egypt no longer remain in the Valley of the 



24 ANC1EKT EGYPT : 

Nile, but have been transplanted by modern na- 
tions to adorn their capitals, or give value to 
their museums of art. Notwithstanding, how- 
ever, these obstacles and changes, so many and 
so powerful are the associations of locality, that 
we think the best mode of giving the reader a 
general idea of Egyptian monuments, is to tra- 
verse in imagination the soil on which they all 
originally stood, and by help of our knowledge 
of the past to conceive of them as they formerly 
existed, undisturbed by the ancient and modern 
conqueror. 

We invite our readers, then, to a journey to 
Egypt. According to the ordinary route, on 
the termination of the voyage by sea, Alexan- 
dria is the first part of Egypt at which the trav- 
eler arrives. It is the city of Alexander the 
Great, founded by him B. C. 332, as a commo- 
dious harbor, with the view of there concentrat- 
ing the commerce of Europe, Arabia, and the 
far-distant India. He is said to have designed 
the city with his own hand, and to have marked 
out his plans by a quantity of meal sprinkled 
on the ground. It is built upon the land be- 
tween the Lake Mareotis and the harbor which 
is formed by the isle of Pharos — a long narrow 
island running along the coast. The city lies 
twelve miles to the west of the Canopic mouth 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 25 

of the Nile. This mouth of the river is the 
western one, and is so called from an ancient 
city, Canopus, which has long since fallen to 
decay, and even the site of which has become 
unknown, though it was probably situated at 
this mouth of the Nile. Alexandria is said by 
some persons to be a more healthful residence 
than the towns farther from the coast ; but the 
water of the city is very unwholesome, and the 
plague makes its appearance here sooner by 
some days than in the interior. Cisterns are 
found under a great part of the old city, and it 
is from them that the inhabitants of modern 
Alexandria derive their water. When the 
inundation of the Nile is at its height, the water 
percolates through the soil and fills these cis- 
terns. 

The Island of Pharos has given a name to 
any lighthouse for the direction of seamen, from 
the celebrated one erected at its eastern extrem- 
ity. In the age when the world was reckoned 
to have seven wonders, this was accounted one 
of them. It was a square building of white 
marble, about four hundred feet in height, built 
by Ptolemy Soter and. Ptolemy Philadelphus. 
It consisted of several stories and galleries, and 
fires were kept constantly lighted on the top by 
night to direct the sailors into the bay. Mirrors 



26 ANCIENT EGYPT '. 

were so fixed in the upper galleries that the 
ships sailing in the sea were visible in them. 
The emperor Claudius so admired this structure, 
that he took it for his model in the erection of 
one at Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber. Pliny 
commends the magnanimity of Ptolemy, the 
king of Egypt, in allowing the architect to in- 
scribe his own name, rather than his sovereign's 
on this edifice ; but there is another version of 
the story. It is said that the original inscrip- 
tion was in stucco, and that it bore the king's 
name. After the death, however, of the Ptole- 
my by whose aid it was erected, the stucco 
crumbled away, and an inscription in stone be- 
came manifest, to the glory of Sostratus of Cni- 
dus, son of Dexiphanes, the architect. 

The city of Alexandria was remarkable for 
its once noble library, the largest collection of 
books ever made previous to the invention of 
printing. It is said to have contained 700,000 
volumes, and was founded and sustained, at the 
suggestion of Demetrius Phalereus, by Ptole- 
my L, and his successors. In the war carried 
on by Julius Caesar, 400,000 volumes were de- 
stroyed by fire. It suffered by degrees in the 
wars and tumults that followed, and was finally 
destroyed by the Arabs, A. D. 640, who found 
in these precious remains of antiquity sufficient 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 27 

fuel to heat for the space of six months the four 
thousand baths Alexandria is said to have con- 
tained. The Arab general was solicited to spare 
the library, and wrote to his sovereign for in- 
structions. He received as an answer to his in- 
quiry the message : " As to the books which you 
have mentioned, if they contain what is agreea- 
ble with the book of God, the book of God is 
sufficient without them ; and if they contain 
what is contrary to the book of God, there is no 
need of them, — so let them be destroyed.'' As a 
consequence of this order, manuscripts were 
consigned to the flames, which, had they existed 
to the present time, would doubtless have greatly 
enlarged our materials of information respecting 
Ancient Egypt. 

Two obelisks of granite mark the site of the 
Caesarium, or palace of the Caesars. An obe- 
lisk is a single block of stone, cut into a four- 
sided form. The horizontal width gradually de- 
creases at each side upwards to the top of the 
shaft, which is surmounted by a small pyramid. 
The word obelisk is derived from a Greek word 
signifying a spit. Those at Alexandria are 
sixty-five feet high, and seven or eight square at 
the base. They are known among the Arabs 
by the name of Pharaoh's Packing-needles, and 
one of them which is standing, with the other 



28 ANCIENT EGYPT'. 

prostrate beside it, is known generally as Cleo- 
patra's Needle. The English have several times 
contemplated removing the fallen one, the trans- 
port of which to that country it is estimated 
would cost £15,000, but no steps have yet been 
taken for the accomplishment of the object. 
Both of the obelisks are of the peculiar granite 
known as the Syenite, from Syene, the place of 
the quarry where the Egyptian obelisks were 
dug out and carved. According to Champol- 
lion Figeac, they bear the name of Thothmes 
III., of the date of 1756 B. C, and on their 
sides is that also of Ramses the Great. They 
stood originally at Heliopolis, and were brought 
to Alexandria by one of the Caesars, to adorn 
his palace. Between the standing one and the 
sea are ruins and fragments of marble, which 
belonged to the building whose entrance was 
ornamented by these obelisks. There was form- 
erly another obelisk at Alexandria, at the tem- 
ple of Arsinoe, the sister of Ptolemy Philadel- 
phus, originally cut by ISTectanebo. It was re- 
moved to Home, and set up in the Roman 
Forum. Its apex was cut off to be replaced by 
one of gold, but it still remains in its mutilated 
condition. 

Pompey's Pillar, as it is commonly named, 
stands between the walls of the city of Alexan- 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 29 

dria and the lake, and is reckoned one of the 
finest monuments in the world. It is not certain, 
however, that it is at all a monument of Ancient 
Egypt, as it was erected (possibly not for the 
first time) by the Roman prefect of Egypt, 
about A. D. 300, in honor of Diocletian the 
emperor, who had made the inhabitants of Alex- 
andria a present of corn in a season of great 
scarcity. It consists of capital, style, shaft, and 
pedestal. The last reposes on smaller blocks, 
inscribed with Egyptian hieroglyphics, once be- 
longing to older monuments, which were brought 
to Alexandria for the purpose of assisting in the 
erection of this pillar. On one of these frag- 
ments of old monuments is legible the name of 
Psammeticus I. The column is about one hun- 
dred feet high, and bears a Greek inscription. 
On the top is a depression, as if intended to 
receive a statue. The shaft of the pillar is de- 
faced by persons who have ascended to the 
summit, and inscribed their names in modern 
black paint. The manner of ascent is difficult, 
and requires no ordinary nerve and courage. 
There are no winding steps inside or out, but a 
large flying kite has been employed to stretch a 
cord across the top of this monument. A stout 
rope was then gradually drawn over it, and the 
column was rigged with shrouds like the mast 



30 ANCIENT EGYPT I 

of a ship. An English lady is said to have been 
among the adventurous persons who ascended 
this rope-ladder. 

The Catacombs, or Necropolis of Alexandria, 
are worthy of the traveler's visit. They are 
nearly two miles long, and lie on the south-west 
of the old city, between the old harbor and the 
Lake Mareotis. They are elegant structures, 
cut in the solid rock, and are very numerous. 
One of the chambers has a beautiful Doric en- 
tablature, and mouldings of a peculiar form. 
Modern Alexandria is a diminutive city in com- 
parison with the ancient. The discovery of the 
passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope 
destroyed a large share of its commercial im- 
portance, but of late years it has somewhat 
revived. In the history of Christianity it is 
famous for its schools of learning ; but few, it is 
to be feared, of its present inhabitants understand 
and obey the commandment of God to believe 
in his Son Jesus Christ. 

The journey from Alexandria to Cairo is one 
of three days, and in the way lies the site of 
Sais, an ancient city of Egypt, the birth-place 
of a dynasty of kings, who ruled Egypt till the 
time of the Persian invasion under Cambyses. 
From this place Cecrops is said to have sailed 
in a boat made of papyrus, to found the colony 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 31 

of Attica, and lay the foundation of the litera- 
ture and civilization of Greece. The translators 
of the Hebrew Bible into Greek identified this 
place with the Sin mentioned in Ezekiel, along 
with Memphis and Thebes, as the strength of 
Egypt. Sin, however, was more probably Pe- 
lusium, at the mouth of the Nile. At Sais, the 
temple of the Egyptian Minerva lies in ruins, 
and the site is choked up with rubbish. The 
city is the burying-place of the Pharaohs of 
many generations, and here took place one of 
the grandest Egyptian festivals — the one called 
"the festival of the burning lamps." The tra- 
veler proceeding to Cairo lands at Boulak, its 
southern harbor, on the eastern branch of the 
Nile, about twelve miles from the point where 
the river divides and forms the Delta. 

Cairo, formerly called El Ckahireh, but now 
Musr, is the capital of Modern Egypt. It is 
situated in a plain on the right or eastern bank, 
near the head of the Delta, about midway be- 
tween the river and the ridge of Mokattam. 
The space between the town and the river is 
about a mile wide to the northward, and about 
half a mile to the southward, towards Musr el 
Ateeckah, the southern landing-place. On ap- 
proaching Cairo, the renowned and massive 
pyramids are seen for the first time in the dis- 



32 ANCIENT EGYPT I 

tance. A little way off, the town has a beauti- 
ful and attractive appearance, but on a nearer 
acquaintance it disappoints expectation. Its 
streets, or rather lanes, are irregular, narrow, 
and unpaved. The gardens, which are numer- 
ous, are divided by long walks, with gutters on 
each side, and these plots are again subdivided 
into many squares, which have a stiff and formal 
appearance. Some fine monuments of Ara- 
bian architecture are found in its streets, and 
the city bears the high-sounding epithet of 
" mother of the world." In its neighborhood lie- 
many of the most notable antiquities of Egypt. 
Travelers by the overland route to India usually 
hurry away from the town to run up the pyra- 
mids. 

A two hours' ride from Cairo brings the trav- 
eler to Matareeh, the ancient Heliopolis, famous 
for its Temple of the Sun. In the midst of a 
garden of oranges and lemons stands erect a sol- 
itary obelisk, covered with hieroglyphics. The 
ruins around it are in the form of a rectangle, 
and are about three miles in circumference. The 
obelisk bears the name of Osirtasen I., the date 
of whose reign is fixed by Wilkinson from 1740 
to 1696 B. C. The birds and animals on it are 
sculptured with extraordinary accuracy, and a 
naturalist can at once distinguish the genus of 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 33 

each. The apex shows that there was an addi- 
tion of some covering, probably of metal. He- 
liopolis was a renowned seat of learning, anciently- 
called On, but appearing in the prophecy of 
Jeremiah under the name of Beth-shemesh, 
" house of the sun," where it is said that Nebu- 
chadnezzar, " shall break the images of Beth- 
shemesh, that is in the land of Egypt ; and the 
houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he 
burn with fire." Abraham may have looked on 
this idol temple ; and here lived the father-in- 
law of Joseph, Potipherah, priest of On. He- 
rodotus and Plato visited and studied at this 
same city ; and we have the testimony of Strabo, 
that thirty years before Christ this temple lay in 
ruins. Many obelisks formerly stood in the 
neighborhood, several of which have been re- 
moved. The one near the church of St. John 
Lateran at Rome came from Heliopolis. Con- 
stantine brought it to Alexandria, and thence 
his son conveyed it to Rome. It is, perhaps, 
the largest obelisk in the world, the shaft being 
one hundred and five feet in height, and it is 
covered from the base to the top with exquisite 
sculptures. A ship was. built to bring it to Rome, 
rowed by three hundred men, and its original 
position in Rome was in the Circus Maximus. 
The inscription is in six vertical lines, occupying 



ANCIENT EGYPT*. 

34 



34 a 

A t This Heliopohs an old .5 camo^ ^ 

tbe traveler, unde r wh*h b J t ^ ^ ^ 
Mary, with the holy Ch^teo^ ^ ^ ^ 

£la";otfo g ^hhasthesa m e pretensions 

t0 respectful J-JgJ^fc connection with 

Onion » an intei stm P & .^ 

Jewish history, as the ate 01 F An _ 

^^ted^ 

tiochns rejected Oma* 1 ^ recom . 

at Jerusalem, and b e ^ to JJg qlie en f M lJ»t 
mended hunself to Ptolemja h thear 

Many Jews were rt tW g ^ fte ktag 

an d Onias emplojed "hi inn for ^ use . 

to secure the erection ; of a temp rf 

ft W as built on the site of at m ^ 

Isis , and was the temple J eru^ ^ 

-: ^^Stg to the Jewish 
Ser T To iuTtfv his innovation, Onias appealed 
ritual. To jusU y n rf ^.^ ffl ^ 

to a passage m he pro p y ^ ^ g k _ 
it is declared that there ^ ^ ^ 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 35 

prefer the reading of the passage according to 
the marginal note, "the city of the sun," to the 
reading of our English text, " the city of destruc- 
tion," there being evidence to show that the latter 
is the reading of the Jews of Palestine to pour 
reproach on the temple of Onias. A mound, 
still known as the Jews' heap, marks the site of 
the temple, which continued for a space of two 
hundred and forty years as a favorite resort of 
Egyptian Jews, and was finally destroyed by 
Vespasian, in consequence of their repeated at- 
tempts to throw off the Roman yoke. For so 
long a period, we are justified in believing, the 
worship of the true God, and the reading of his 
holy law, continued in the very midst of Egyp- 
tian idolatry — a testimony which we may well 
suppose to have been graciously directed to the 
conversion and salvation of some of these Gen- 
tiles. 

Ten miles south-west of Cairo, on the western 
side of the Nile, and about five miles from the 
river, lie the ever-memorable pyramids of Gizeh, 
or Jizeh. They are built on a bed of rock, one 
hundred and fifty feet above the level of the 
surrounding desert, being a projection of the 
Libyan chain of mountains. This elevation, their 
immense size, and the clearness of the atmo- 
sphere, render them visible at a great distance. 



36 ANCIENT EGYPT I 

The purpose of such massive piles of almost 
solid masonry is scarcely yet satisfactorily dis- 
covered, it being difficult to conceive of them only 
as the burying-places of the kings. Many va- 
rious conjectures have been entertained respect- 
ing them, but this is after all the only one sup- 
ported by evidence. The principal pyramids 
are three in number — that of Cheops, or Suphis, 
being the largest. The ascent of this on the 
eastern side is easy, and there is a space at the 
top of thirty-two feet. The stones that formed 
the apex have been removed, and also the outer 
casing of the pyramid, in order to build the nu- 
merous mosques of Cairo. The prospect from 
the summit is very extensive, embracing a circle 
of thirty miles' distance. On one side is the 
Libyan Desert, stretching out as an ocean of 
sand, and on the other are the city of Cairo and 
the green and fertile Valley of the Nile. The 
pyramid is about 115 feet higher than St. Paul's 
Cathedral, being 460 feet in height, and is about 
3,053 feet in circumference at the base. It is 
built with two hundred and six steps, or tiers of 
stone, and covers an area equal to Lincoln's Inn 
Fields up to the houses. A stone thrown by the 
strongest arm from the top of the pyramid will 
not reach the ground without first falling on the 
pyramid itself. A hundred thousand men are 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 37 

said to have been employed for twenty years in 
the erection, and it is reckoned to have required 
six millions of tons of stone. The pyramids are 
built due north and south, and were erected in 
steps and terraces for the convenience of the 
builders, who advanced from stage to stage by 
scaffolding, and smoothed the face with an out- 
side casing as they descended. For the most 
part, the pyramids are solid masonry. Caliph 
Mamoon, A. D. 820, first opened the great pyra- 
mid. The entrance is on the sixteenth step on 
the northern side, and, to deceive the seeker, it 
is placed twenty eight feet from the centre. 
The caliph expected to find treasure, and for fear 
of disappointing and exasperating his workmen 
when no gold was found, sufficient was taken into 
the pyramid to cover the expenses of opening, 
and was then reported to be found in it. The 
Arabs tell a story of a statue being found in a 
sarcophagus, and with the statue a body, hav- 
ing a breastplate of gold and jewels, and an in- 
scription in characters which no one could de- 
cipher. There are passages and small chambers 
inside the pyramid, and in one of the latter the 
sarcophagus yet remains. When struck it emits 
a sound like a bell, and from the fragments bro- 
ken off by Europeans, it will very soon become 
transported piecemeal to Europe. It is found in 



38 ANCIENT EGYPT: 

one of the chambers called the king's chamber. 
No hieroglyphics have been discovered on it, but 
Colonel Vyse found the name of the king from 
whom this pyramid is called in the stones of the 
upper chamber. There is space enough in the 
pyramid for 3,700 rooms of the size of the king's 
chamber, leaving the contents of every second 
chamber solid by way of seapration. 

The second pyramid, that of Cephrenes, is 
very similar to the first. It was opened by Bel- 
zoni, in 1816, and a sarcophagus was found sunk 
in the floor, containing the bones of an ox. Both 
pyramids, however, had probably been long 
ago visited by the Arabs, and despoiled of any 
contents which might appear valuable. The 
third pyramid was opened by Colonel Vyse. It 
contains a chamber, with a pointed roof, in 
which was a stone sarcophagus, which was lost 
at sea by the wreck of the vessel which trans- 
ported it. The wooden coffin, with the name 
of the king inscribed on it, is one of the most 
valuable antiquities deposited in the British Mu- 
seum. The name of the King is Mykerinus. 
Although this pyramid was only about half the 
size of the other two, yet it was most beautiful, 
as its outer casing was of granite. Besides these 
three pyramids, there are several others in the 
same neighborhood, of inferior dimensions, and 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 41 

also many tombs. In one of these tombs, prob- 
ably as old as the great pyramid, are represen- 
tations of persons engaged in various trades — 
carpenters, boatmakers, etc. — and persons eat- 
ing, drinking, and dancing. 

Not far from the pyramids stands the great 
Sphinx, an enormous statue of the composite 
animal of which the Egyptians were so fond. 
It is in this case half man and half beast. It is 
cut out in solid stone, with the exception of the 
fore legs, and it has no pedestal, but a paved 
dromos or platform in front, on which the legs 
repose. They extend fifty feet, and processions 
took place between the legs to the breast, where 
a temple has been discovered, composed of three 
tablets. On one of these is a representation of 
Thothmes IV., offering incense and a libation of 
oil to the Sphinx. Some contend that it was 
this Thothmes who oppressed the Israelites, and 
go so far as to affirm that the Sphinx is a por- 
trait of the king in whose reign the departure 
from Egypt took place. The whole of it was 
formerly painted, and the face yet retains some 
of the red ochre. It is hewn out of a mass of 
limestone rock, and it is . not impossible that the 
original form of the rock suggested the idea of 
converting it into an enormous colossal statue. 
Inscriptions have been discovered on the paws, 



41 ANCIENT EGYPT '. 

one of which, in Greek, has appended to it the 
name of Arrian, the elegant historian and philoso- 
pher of the second century. Arab characters 
are seen scratched on the right cheek. Form- 
erly there was a cap of ram's horn and feathers 
on the top of the head, but this has been for a 
long time removed, and only the cavity remains. 
Pliny gives us the measure of the Sphinx's 
head; round the forehead 102 feet, the whole 
length of the figure 142, and the height from 
the belly to the top of the head 62 feet. It was 
an enormous idol, the representation of a local 
deity, to whom sacrifices and worship were ren- 
dered by the kings and inhabitants of Egypt. 
Its nose is broken away, and the sand continu- 
ally accumulates in the area beneath, so that its 
present appearance is clumsy, though many 
travelers speak of its calm and smiling aspect 
when contemplated for some time. 

In the same neighborhood of Cairo, at Saq- 
quara and Dashour, are other pyramids, some 
of them rivaling in size those of Gizeh, contain- 
ing mummies of the ibis in long earthenware 
pots, and mummies of snakes. There was a stone 
arch near the pyramids of Gizeh, bearing the 
name of Psammeticus II., and a tomb, with a 
vaulted chamber, at Saqquara. Of the ancient 
city of Memphis, also on the western side of the 



ITS MOM ME NTS AND HISTORY. 43 

Nile, there remains little but a colossal statue 
of Ramses II., with a few broken columns. This 
statue is forty-two feet in height; it is broken 
at the feet, and part of the cap is wanting. It 
is fallen upon its face, and an amulet, in the shape 
of the Urim and Thummim among the Jews, is 
suspended from its neck. The mummy pits of 
Memphis are very extensive, and in them thou- 
sands of ibis mummies are heaped together, lay- 
er above layer. 

Before proceeding up the Nile, we turn aside 
for a short space to visit the " field of Zoan," 
where the Almighty, by the hand of his servant 
Moses, confounded the idol-worshipers, and 
proclaimed the abundance of his power to defend 
and rescue his servants. Scripture testifies that 
here was a city only seven years less ancient 
than Hebron ; now, however, there is only a bar- 
ren waste, with high and extensive mounds of 
ruins. The walls and columns of a mighty tem- 
ple lie buried, to await the labors of some future 
excavator. 

We now follow the course of the Nile south- 
ward towards Upper Egypt. Nine miles from 
Cairo are the quarries . of Maasarah and Toora, 
whence came the stone for the construction of 
the temple and pyramids. Here is the repre- 
sentation of a sledge drawn by oxen, bearing 



44 ANCIENT EGYPT I 

the mass of stone from the quarry, and an in- 
scription, giving an account of the opening of the 
quarry. 

On the eastern bank of the river we reach the 
tombs and grottoes of Beni Hassan. They are 
catacombs, cut in the rock on the side of the 
hills which overhang the Valley of the Nile, and 
are supposed by Wilkinson to be of earlier date 
than those of Thebes. They were excavated in 
the reign of Osirtasen I. Buildings are imitated 
by the carvings in the rock, and the walls are 
colored so as to resemble granite overlaid with 
coatings of lime. In each grotto are pits, in 
which the dead were buried. It is from the 
pictures on the sides of these tombs that we have 
the most valuable information respecting the 
manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians. 
Here are represented processes of trade and man- 
ufactures, the watering of flax and manufacture 
of linen, agricultral and hunting scenes, wrest- 
ling, attacking a fort, offering to the dead, dan- 
cing, scribes registering accounts, the beating 
of servants, both men and women, fishing, net- 
ting, playing the harp, kneading and preparing 
the bread. These are some of the contents of the 
first tomb on the northern side. In the next 
tomb the delineations are even more various, and 
the painting superior. There is a picture of a 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 45 

procession of strangers, who, from the hiero- 
glyphics, are thought to be captives. Some 
take them, however, for Joseph and his brethren 
arriving in Egypt. In the southern grottoes are 
representations of women playing at ball, throw- 
ing up and catching three balls in succession. 
There is the doctor bleeding, the barber shaving 
and cutting toe-nails, the process of glass-blow- 
ing, the working of goldsmiths, statuaries, and 
painters, and cattle tended by old and decrepit 
persons. These tombs are very extensive, and 
are frequented by great numbers of serpents. 

Beyond Beni Hassan's grottoes is the Speos 
Artemidos, and the temple of the Egyptian Di- 
ana, a grotto excavated in the rock by Thoth- 
mes III., with the addition of other sculptures 
by the father of Ramses the Great. At El Ber- 
sheh, in a grotto in a mountain, is a representa- 
tion of a colossal statue, drawn by men by ropes 
attached to a sledge. Four rows of men are 
represented, of forty-three each, and a person 
is seen pouring out liquid from a vase to make 
the sledge run easy. Four rows of men repre- 
sent architects and masons, others appear with 
wands as taskmasters, and one is seen clapping 
his hands, to mark time and insure a strong 
pull and a pull all together. 

We pass by monuments of minor interest, — 



46 ANCIENT EGYPT: 

grottoes, tombs, and mummies, — and arrive at 
Girgeh. It is so called from St. George, the 
patron saint of England. Its inhabitants are 
nominally Christians, and there is a Coptic 
church and convent, dedicated to St. George. 
It was formerly a city of great importance, and 
aspired to be the capital of Upper Egypt. 
Christian merely in name, it is to be feared that 
its inhabitants generally have only the form with- 
out the power of godliness ; and do not know, 
or forget, that if any man be in Christ he is a 
new creature, and that salvation is the free gift 
of God unto eternal life through the merit of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, to all who through grace 
believe in him. 

Diverging thence, but still on the right or 
eastern bank of the Nile, we are brought at a 
distance of three hours, or about nine miles, in 
the direction of the mountains, to Abydos. Here 
are ruins on a great scale, and of considerable 
antiquity. Two large edifices were erected by 
Osirei I., and his son, the Great Ramses, the 
ruins of which are extensive. The palace of 
Memnon, as it is called, was commenced by 
Osirei, and finished by Ramses. The roof is pe- 
culiar, being formed of large blocks of stone, 
laid across on their sides, and not on their faces. 
The walls are covered with hieroglyphics. At 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY, 47 

Abydos, Osiris was worshiped ; he was buried 
there, and in the neighborhood many tombs are 
to be found of those persons who wished to be 
buried near their god. His temple was spacious 
and magnificent. It was on the wall of one of 
the apartments in it that the famous tablet was 
sculptured, containing the names of the kings of 
Egypt, which has been so useful in determining 
their succession and chronology, and which is 
now one of the treasures of the British Museum. 
Passing by Diospolis Parva, we reach Den- 
derah, or Tentyris, on the west bank of the Nile, 
one of the most considerable and entire struc- 
tures of Egyptian antiquity. It is a temple, sup- 
posed to be in honor of Athor, the Egyptian 
Yenus, whose figure appears in the capitals of 
the gigantic columns. The portico was added 
in the reign of Tiberius, and bears on its front a 
Greek inscription. Egyptian architecture was 
on the decline when this temple was built, and 
its modern date accounts for its excellent state 
of preservation. In the ceiling of this portico 
was the celebrated zodiac of Denderah, which 
was at first thought to be of very remote anti- 
quity. Many an unbeliever in Divine revelation 
appealed to it as attesting the immense age of 
the world, and the alleged mistakes of the Holy 
Scriptures ; but now that the hieroglyphics have 



48 ANCIENT EGYPT I 

been deciphered, it is ascertained to be of com- 
paratively modern date — not earlier than the 
Christian era. The zodiac has been taken down, 
transported by the Nile to Alexandria, and hav- 
ing been purchased by the king of the French, 
is removed to Paris. On the temple are the 
names of several of the Caesars. The oldest 
names are those of Cleopatra, and of her son 
Ptolemy Caesarion, by Julius Caesar, whose forms 
also are sculptured in colossal dimensions on the 
exterior wall. In a portrait of Cleopatra, her 
features are by no means beautiful ; it is proba- 
bly a cotemporary and accurate representation. 
The portico of the temple is supported by twenty- 
four columns, succeeded by a hall with six col- 
umns, with three rooms on each side, and a cen- 
tral chamber. The length of the whole temple 
is two hundred and twenty feet, by about one 
hundred and twenty feet broad. Behind it is 
another and smaller temple of Athor, in which 
a cow is figured. 

Passing by Coptos and Apollinopolis Parva, 
we reach the mighty Thebes. This city, called 
in the Scriptures, Xo, or Xo-Ammon, (Jer. xlvi, 
25,) and by the Greeks Diospolis, (City of Jove,) 
was situated in the central part of Upper Egypt. 
It was divided by the Nile into two portions. 
These extended on each side, from the river to 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 49 

the foot of the hills which inclose the Valley of 
the Nile, a space of six miles and upwards from 
east to west, forming a city of gigantic dimen- 
sions. Its greatness, splendor, and wealth are 
mentioned by Homer, who calls it " the City 
with a Hundred Gates." Its origin is hidden in 
remote antiquity ; its most flourishing period was 
about one thousand six hundred years before 
Christ, when it was the capital of the Egyptian 
empire. In the sixth century before Christ, it 
experienced an overthrow by the Persians, under 
Cambyses, from which it never recovered, and 
was reduced to ruin by Ptolemy Lathy rus, 
about one hundred years before the Christian 
era. The site of the ancient city is now occu- 
pied by four villages — two, Gournou, or Koor- 
neh, and Medinet-Abou, on the western; and 
two, Luxor and Karnac, on the eastern side of the 
river. 

The ruins of Thebes, still existing in great 
profusion, excite astonishment from their mag- 
nitude and solidity. They consist chiefly of 
temples and other buildings,- colossal statues, 
sphinxes, and obelisks. On the western side, at 
the point where the ruins end, a city of the dead 
begins, consisting of the tombs of the kings of 
Egypt, with their paintings as fresh and bright 
as if just finished, formed in the rocks, and 
4 



50 ANCIENT EGYPT I 

reaching as far as the borders of the desert. A 
few of these ruins may be now noticed. 

On the west bank, in the Libyan division of 
Thebes, is a temple, in the ruined village called 
by the natives Er'ebek-Gourneh, or Old Koor- 
neh. This large building was perhaps a palace, 
and not a temple — intended for the residence of 
a king rather than for an idol god. It is not the 
largest building in Thebes, there being other 
still more stupendous structures in its neighbor- 
hood. It was built by Osirei, and completed by 
his son Bamses. Large sandstone blocks now 
obstruct the approach to it. The portico has 
ten columns, of an ancient order of Egyptian 
architecture, representing the buds and stems of 
the papyrus. 

Another imposing structure on the same side 
of the river is the Memnonium, or palace of 
Ramses II., very elegant in its architecture and 
sculpture. The columns in the centre of the 
great hall represent the full-grown papyrus. In 
the court at the entrance, where the breadth is 
one hundred and eighty feet, there once stood 
a stupendous statue of the king, seated on his 
throne ; but an invader, or some convulsion of 
nature, has dashed it to pieces, and the mighty 
fragments scattered all round the pedestal give 
the court the appearance of a stone quarry. 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 51 

The entire mass of the statue is reckoned to 
have weighed 887 tons. On the walls of the 
great hall are representations of battle-scenes, 
in which Asiatic towns and chiefs are described, 
partly by pictures and partly by hieroglyphic 
characters. A mighty procession of priests ap- 
pears, bearing the figures of their Theban an- 
cestors, and the Diospolitan or Theban dynasty 
of the kings of Egypt. On the south wall is a 
battle piece, representing the capture by scaling- 
ladder and testudo of an Asiatic town. This 
palace of Memnon, as it is called — more cor- 
rectly, however, of Ramses — has been by many 
writers identified with the palace and tomb of 
Osymaudyas, of which the historian Diodorus 
Siculus gives details. Belzoni obtained from 
this palace the colossal figure of the head and 
shoulders of a young man, known as the head 
of Memnon, which is now in the British Mu- 
seum. An immense colossal fist, also in the 
Museum, is supposed to be part of the figure 
broken in fragments at the entrance of the tem- 
ple. At the capitulation of Alexandria, this fist 
became the property of the British, but whence 
its original possessors, the French, procured it is 
not known. Between this temple and the lime- 
stone mountain are smaller elevations, found 
on examination to be tombs. They contain on 



52 ANCIENT EGYPT '. 

their walls different views of Egyptian life, de- 
picted in vivid colors, with much care and intel- 
ligence, and are in a surprising state of preserv- 
ation. 

In the plain, on the same side of the river, 
two statues mark the place of the temple and 
palace of Amunoph. One of these is the cele- 
brated statue of Memnon, which was supposed 
to utter sounds at sunrise. It has been broken 
and repaired. The head was originally a single 
stone, and the height of the figure is forty-seven 
feet. Travelers of old visited it with more 
reverence than is paid to it by those of modern 
times. In the lap of the statue is a stone, 
which, when struck, emits a peculiar sound, and 
it is quite possible for a person to lie in the lap 
of the statue, and be concealed from the obser- 
vation of people below. That there was some 
trick in regard to the alleged utterance is plain 
from the fact that, on the occasion of a visit 
from the emperor Adrian, the statue is reported 
to have lifted up its voice three times, out of 
especial compliment to the royal visitor. Strabo, 
who was not easily deceived, says, that when 
lie saw it he heard a sound, but could not per- 
ceive whether it came from the statue, the pe- 
destal, or from some of the persons around. 
The heathen miracles, if the term may be rightly 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 53 

applied to such tricks, were of a kind which 
would not bear close and prolonged investiga- 
tion. Besides these two statues, others lie in 
fragments around and behind them, and some of 
no less size once formed a magnificent avenue of 
approach to a mighty temple. 

On the same side of the Nile, farther to the 
south, are the palace and temple of Medinet 
Abou, built by Ramses. The court of this 
palace is most imposing, the pillars being twenty 
feet hio-h and seven feet in diameter at the base. 

o 

The sculptures are exceedingly beautiful, and 
represent the king in various attitudes, van- 
quishing his enemies. The temple is inferior in 
grandeur and size to the palace. These ruins 
are now surrounded by the remains of houses, 
which were once inhabited by Christians. The 
court of the building has been converted into a 
church, and a coat of clay has been put over 
the heathen representations. The Greek cross 
appears engraved on several of the openings 
made in the walls of the old building. The 
burial-ground of the Thebans was on the west- 
ern bank of the river. To the south of the last- 
mentioned temple is the sacred lake. In the 
time of drought the plain is dry, but on the 
commencement of the inundation it becomes a 
lake. Over this the dead were ferried in fune- 



54 ANCIENT EGYPT : 

ral boats. One of the tombs of remarkable 
beauty, belonging to king Osirei, was opened by 
Belzoni. The pictorial scenes are like those of 
the tombs at Beni Hassan. 

That portion of Thebes which lies on the 
eastern bank of the Nile, is equally rich in mag- 
nificent remains of temples and palaces of unri- 
valed splendor. The glories of those of Luxor, 
and of the great hall of Karnac, are much re- 
nowned. Luxor lies close to the water's edge, 
and occupies the site of the ancient temple of 
Jupiter. Of two remarkable obelisks found 
there, one was removed by the French, and now 
stands in the Place de la Concorde, at Paris. 
The difficulties attending the operation of remov- 
ing it were such, that the other obelisk has been 
allowed to remain undisturbed. Eight hundred 
men were employed for three months in taking 
down the first-mentioned one, and conveying it 
to the Nile. It now stands on the spot where 
the terrible guillotine was erected after the death 
of Louis XVI. 

The temple of Luxor is on a different plan 
from the Memnonium, having a large court be- 
tween the great hall of columns and the sanc- 
tuary. The obelisks bear the name of Ramses 
II., and behind them, as they originally stood, 
were statues of him in front of the gate. The 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY'. 55 

more ancient parts of the building are of the 
age of Amunoph III. The tall columns of this 
hall of Luxor yet remain, and the exceeding 
beauty and elaborateness of the sculptures con- 
strain the admiration of every traveler. From 
Luxor, in the direction of Karnac, is an avenue 
of sphinxes, with rams' heads and lions' bodies. 
This avenue is more than a mile long, and is fol- 
lowed by another of rams, leading to a small 
temple. The head of one of the rams is in the 
British Museum. The great hall of Karnac is 
supported by a central avenue of twelve mas- 
sive columns, sixty- six feet high and twelve in 
diameter. The hall itself is one hundred and 
seventy feet by three hundred and twenty-nine, 
and the temple is nearly two English miles 
round. Behind the great hall is a court, in which 
are two standing and two fallen obelisks. The 
larger one of those which are standing is ninety 
feet high. A cast of the apex of the fallen one 
is in the British Museum. The names of Osir- 
tasen I., Amunoph I., and on the obelisks, 
Thothmes I., appear in connection with this 
grandest of the Egyptian temples. Sculptures 
and pictures abound, and on the south-west 
wall of the main temple is a representation of 
the triumph of Shishak, the Pharaoh who in- 
vaded Judaea in the age of Rehoboam, and car- 



56 ANCIENT EGYPT : 

ried away the sacred vessels of the temple. 
Throughout all the temple are gigantic pictures 
of battle, slaughter, and triumph. ISText to the 
pyramids, this great hall of Karnac is the most 
remarkable monument in Egypt ; and some idea 
may be formed of its sublime magnitude by the 
statement, that the great hall would contain four 
such churches as that of St. Martin's-in-the- 
Fields, London, and yet the whole space would 
not be occupied. The entire temple covers an 
area more than equal to that which would be 
needed for twenty-eight such churches as St. 
Martin's. There is reason also to believe that 
this immense structure, though itself of great 
antiquity, has been built of the materials of 
monuments more ancient, fragments of which 
may even now be distinguished in its massive 
walls. 

Quitting the huge memorials of the departed 
grandeur of Thebes, we ascend the Xile to 
Esneh, passing the ruins of Erment, the ancient 
Hermonthis, on our way. At Esneh, a fish 
shared with the heathen goddess Minerva the 
worship of the inhabitants, and the city was 
known to the Greeks and Romans by the name 
Latopolis. The temple is of modern date, hav- 
ing been built in the reign of Tiberius, and bear- 
ing the names of the early Roman emperors. 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 57 

It is in a perfect state, having, like that of Den- 
derah, a famous zodiac, but is almost buried in 
sand and rubbish. 

On leaving Esneh, still ascending the Nile, we 
pass the last pyramid, which is in a ruined con- 
dition ; and after thirty miles, arrive at Edfou, 
where there is a large and well-preserved tem- 
ple. It is choked up, however, with the filth 
and ruins of the modern buildings which have 
been erected and gone to decay on its roof, and 
it is only accessible as far as the portico. The 
town is the Apollinopolis Magna of the Greeks 
and Romans, and the temple was begun by 
Ptolemy Philometer, and finished by Euergetes. 
The names of these kings are found in hiero- 
glyphics on stones connected with it. The tem- 
ple is nearly five hundred feet long, and above 
two hundred broad. It is the last great temple 
of Egypt. 

Above Edfou, the Valley of the Nile contracts 
so that the precipices overhang the river, rising 
from sixty to eighty feet in height. At Silsilis 
are quarries, which supplied stones for the mon- 
uments as far north as Denderah ; portions of 
slabs are to be seen partially cut out of the 
rock. Grottoes are here seen adorned with 
paintings, as in the tombs already mentioned. 
After traversing a dreary waste, in the midst of 



5S ANCIENT EGYPT: 

which lie the ruins of two temples, and the site 
of the ancient city of Ombos, we arrive at the 
ancient Syene and modern town of Assouan, 
This is the birthplace of the obelisks, and the 
home of that peculiar rose-colored granite of 
which they are formed, known by the name 
Syenite. In the quarries may be seen an obe- 
lisk, half-formed, but never loosened from its 
parent bed. At Syene there is a small temple, 
erected in honor of either Nero or Domitian. To 
this place the Roman satirist Juvenal was ban- 
ished, under the form of an honorable appoint- 
ment as prefect of a legion, for giving offence to 
the emperor Adrian. 

Opposite Syene, in the midst of the Nile, is 
the fairy island of Elephantine, covered with 
verdure and flowers, not the less beautiful by 
contrast with the barrenness around. It has 
two temples ; one, which formerly stood in the 
centre of the island, was very beautiful, though 
small, and bore the name of Alexander, son of 
Alexander the Great. Only the gateway of 
this temple now remains, the stones having 
been taken away to make a summer-house for 
the pasha on the opposite shore. Inscriptions, 
with the names and titles of some of the early 
Pharaohs, are found in the island. At this 
point we reach the cataracts, where the Egyp- 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 59 

tian territory terminates and that of Nubia 
begins. 

The cataracts are about three miles south of 
Elephantine ; the two chains of mountains which 
inclose the Valley of the Nile, unite, and form 
several «mall islands in the bed of the river, 
impeding its course. The island of Philae, the 
last place to be now named, although not geo- 
graphically within the boundary of Egypt, being 
situated within the still waters above the cata- 
ract, is commonly reckoned as Egyptian. It 
has on its narrow and barren surface a profusion 
of monuments, there being not less than eight 
different temples. The principal one is dedicated 
to Isis, and was begun by Ptolemy Philadelphus. 
A chapel dedicated to Athor bears the name of 
Nectanebo. 

In the country of Nubia, beyond the first cat- 
aract, temples and monuments are found rivaling 
those of Egypt, but of that region it is not in- 
tended to speak now. 



60 ANCIENT EGYPT I 



CHAPTER III. 

HISTORY OF EGYPT, ESPECIALLY AS CONNECTED 
WITH THE SCRIPTURES. 

In attempting a sketch of Egyptian history, it is 
well to enumerate the sources whence our know- 
ledge is derived, and the materials by the study 
of which only it can be prosecuted. These con- 
sist of the Bible, the existing monuments, and 
historical documents. 

The first is by far the most important, by 
reason of its authority, and the nature of the 
facts which it records. It is necessary, however, 
to guard the reader against falling into a mis- 
take in reference to the chronology commonly 
printed as a portion of the sacred Scriptures. 
While for the facts as recorded in the Bible we 
lay claim to a complete authenticity, this claim 
must not be supposed to extend to words in 
which the ancient manuscripts are themselves 
discordant, and still less to the interpretations 
assigned to these words by fallible men. The 
construction of a complete chronological system, 
which shall carry with it conclusive authority in 
all its parts, is a problem yet to be accomplished, 
but one of which perhaps it may be said, that 
we are rapidly approaching its satisfactory solu- 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 61 

tion. Such a system, whenever it is fully estab- 
lished, will be found in perfect harmony with 
the Divine revelations in the Bible. At present, 
however, the subject, by reason of its obscurity, 
is attended with some difficulty. The space of 
time which elapsed from the creation to the 
birth of Christ is generally divided into certain 
great periods, the earliest of which are from the 
creation to the deluge, from the deluge to the 
birth of Abraham, from the birth of Abraham 
to the exodus of the Israelites, and from the 
exodus to the building of the temple. A re- 
markable difference is found to exist between 
the numbers recorded in the Hebrew manuscripts 
of the book of Genesis, from which our author- 
ized English translation of the Bible is made, 
and those contained in the Greek Septuagint 
version of the Scriptures, made in the reign of 
Ptolemy Philadelphus, about two hundred and 
fifty years before Christ. The numbers in the 
latter are corroborated by their substantial 
agreement with those given in the writings of 
Josephus the Jewish historian. The difference 
between these two independent authorities, the 
Hebrew and the Septuagint, each of which pre- 
sents claims to be considered the correct read- 
ing of the word of God, is about six hundred 
years from the creation to the deluge, and seven 



62 ancient egypt: 

hundred years from the deluge to the birth of 
Abraham, with differences less important in the 
succeeding epochs. The arrangement of the 
chronological dates of the events recorded in 
the Bible must depend on the previous question, 
which of these varying classes of authority is 
to be preferred. Archbishop Usher, from whom 
our ordinary chronology proceeds, adopted that 
of the Hebrew manuscripts as given to us by 
the Maronite Jews, and the dates which were 
fixed upon by him were chosen out of many 
opinions having more or less of authority in their 
favor. Perhaps in the choice made by him he 
exercised a wise judgment : it is no reflection, 
however, on him to say, that possibly he was 
mistaken. A difference in judgment with arch- 
bishop Usher and the advocates of the contracted 
chronology, may be so far from being the result 
of opposition to the word of God, as to proceed 
from a profound respect to it, and a willingness 
to be wholly subject to its unerring teaching. 
Accordingly, some of the most learned, and at 
the same time most devout Biblical scholars, 
have not hesitated to give the preference to the 
extended chronology, which was used in the 
earlier ages of the Christian Church, and is sus- 
tained by the testimony of the Septuagint and 
Josephus. 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 63 

So long a reference has been made to this 
difficult and intricate subject of chronology, in 
order to remove from the mind of the reader 
any vague apprehension of irreconcilable oppo- 
sition between the conclusions of Egyptian re- 
searches and the contents of the sacred volume. 
The results of the investigations of science and 
of literature, when faithfully conducted, ever 
have been, and it may be safely affirmed, ever 
will be, in harmony with the word of the all-wise 
and beneficent Creator. It is not yet absolutely 
certain that the information afforded by Egyp- 
tian monuments is irreconcilable even with the 
contracted chronology of archbishop Usher, but it 
is admitted on all hands to be perfectly recon- 
cilable with the extended chronology of the 
Septuagint and Dr. Hales, so that the believer 
in Divine revelation has nothing whatever to fear 
from any boasted antiquity of the Egyptian an- 
nals. The result of investigations on this sub- 
ject has been singularly fatal, step after step, to 
the boasted wisdom and prophetic spirit of the 
opponents of revelation. When darkness over- 
hung the monuments of Egypt, it was a common 
practice for the infidel to appeal to them, as af- 
fording indubitable proofs of facts quite in con- 
tradiction to the statements of Moses. Volney 
did not hesitate impudently to assert, that the 



64 ANCIENT EGYPT '. 

comparately modern temple of Esneh was older 
by some hundred years than the date assigned 
by Usher to the creation of the world, and to 
anticipate, with profane satisfaction, the com- 
plete subversion of the Christian faith by the 
evidence of antiquity, to be furnished when the 
Egyptian hieroglyphics should be deciphered. 
For a time the believers in revelation were una- 
ble to read the evidence to which the infidel ap- 
pealed, but modest and persevering research has 
enabled them out of this armory to select wea- 
pons for his overthrow, has falsified all his pre- 
dictions, and demonstrated and manifested the 
wisdom which belongs only to the Ancient of 
days. A most interesting letter is preserved 
from Champollion, whose name is identified 
with the most valuable discoveries in Egyptian 
hieroglyphics, in which he affirms distinctly his 
own conviction of the absence of any chronolo- 
gical discrepancy between the records of Scrip- 
ture and the facts recorded on the monuments. 
The letter refers to one of his publications, con- 
taining a recapitulation of his historical and 
chronological discoveries. " They will find," he 
writes, alluding to the adversaries of revelation, 
" in it an absolute reply to their calumnies, since 
I have demonstrated that no Egyptian monument 
is really older than the year 2,200 before our 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 65 

era. This certainly is a very high antiquity, 
but it presents nothing contradictory to the sa- 
cred histories, and I venture to affirm that it 
establishes them on all points ; for it is, in fact, 
by adopting the chronology and the succession 
of kings given by the Egyptian monuments, that 
the Egyptian history wonderfully accords with 
the sacred writings.' ' 

The second class of materials for the history 
of Egypt consists of the tombs, temples, and 
monuments of all kinds, which survive the lapse 
of ages, together with the valuable inscriptions 
in explanation of them. There are here and 
there thoughout all the monuments the names 
of kings, and the dates of their reigns, besides 
several tables of genealogy, giving in succession 
the names and titles of the sovereigns who have 
ruled in Egypt. 

The third class of materials consists of the 
writings of the ancient historians. These are 
by no means so easily adjusted as the two form- 
er classes, and from then' fragmentary nature the 
principal difficulty has arisen in the elucidation 
of Egyptian history. The most important of 
these historians is Manetho. He was a learned 
Egyptian, native of Sebennytus, a town of the 
Delta, and thence surnamed the Sebennyte. By 
some he is affirmed to have been a priest and 
5 



66 ANCIENT EGYPT: 

scribe of Heliopolis. M. Bunsen, however, who 
has devoted much research to the vindication of 
his historical character, supposes him to have 
been born and to have lived at Thebes. At 
the suggestion of Ptolemy he wrote a work on 
Egyptian history in three books. It was de- 
rived from the Egyptian records, and was writ- 
ten in Greek, about two hundred years before 
Christ. The first book comprehends the period 
before history is certain — the reigns of the gods ; 
and the other two books embrace the dynasties 
of Egypt down to the conquest by Alexander. 
After the reigns of the gods, Manetho enume- 
rates thirty-one dynasties, or, as reduced by 
Bunsen, thirty. The same writer distinguishes 
between the records of the authentic Manetho, 
and spurious personages who may have borne 
his name. He affirms that Manetho's work 
comprised a period of 3,555 years, although 
many of his reigns are to be esteemed as cotem- 
porary. The work of Manetho is lost, and only 
fragments of it remain, preserved in the writings 
of Josephus, the Jewish historian, Eusebius, and 
Syncellus. The value of Manetho's work has 
been greatly enhanced by its manifest agreement 
in so many particulars with the testimonies of the 
monuments. 

Another Egyptian historian is Eratosthenes of 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 67 

Cyrene, who was superintendent of the Alex- 
andrian library somewhat later than the date of 
Manetho. He constructed a catalogue of kings 
of Egypt from information given him by the 
scribes of Thebes. This work also has perished, 
and our knowledge of it is derived from Syn- 
cellus, who copied the parts he has preserved 
from Apollodorus of Athens. Herodotus and 
Diodorus Siculus come in as helps to the diffi- 
cult task of arranging the order of the kings, and 
furnish information derived from the inquiries 
made by them in the age in which they lived. 
These are the principal materials from which 
Egyptian history has to be compiled, and we now 
present a brief enumeration of the events of 
w^hich it is composed. 

The Bible tells us that Egypt was colonized 
by the descendants of Ham, whence the ancient 
name Chemi, by his second son Mizraim, who 
settled in Egypt after the dispersion at Babel. 
Bochart, however, contends that the word Miz- 
raim is to be understood as a dual form to de- 
note the two Egypts, the Upper and the Lower, 
and that it is derived from either a word signify- 
ing a fortress, or from one meaning narrow y in 
allusion to the shape of the country. Omitting 
the legendary records of the reigns of the gods, 
Menes appears in the darkness of antiquity as 



68 ANCIENT EGYPT: 

the first king, reigning many years before the 
time of Abraham. His name is found in the 
list of kings at Thebes, and in the roll of papy- 
rus preserved in the museum at Turin. By 
some he is identified with Mizraim, but the 
opinion is liable to grave objection. He is sup- 
posed to have built Memphis, and thus to have 
diminished the power and glory of Thebes. 
With him the government of Egypt became a 
monarchy, and was transmitted to his descend- 
ants. He was a warrior, and made foreign con- 
quests, but was slain by a wound from a hippo- 
potamus in the sixty-second year of his reign. 
This king was the first of the Thinite dynasty, 
which included eight princes. The second king 
is reported to have built a palace at Memphis, 
and through all the eight the kingdom descended 
from father to son. 

Another dynasty of nine princes succeeds, and 
a third, the Memphite, of eight, before we arrive 
at the age of the existing monuments. Cham- 
pollion Figeac assigns to the later kings of this 
third dynasty the building of pyramids at Da- 
shour and Saqquara, supposing them to be older 
than those of Gizeh. The fourth dynasty is one 
in which we begin to emerge into the light 
afforded by existing monuments. It is remark- 
able for the number of the princes of which it is 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 69 

composed, and for the length of their reigns. 
The first three kings of this dynasty were the 
builders of the pyramids of Gizeh, and around 
these stupendous structures, which served as 
their own tombs, are to be found the burying- 
places of their descendants and companions. 
The names of the builders, in harmony with 
Manetho's list, have been discovered on the 
three pyramids by Colonel Vyse. At this early 
age of the world's history, the arts of building 
and of design seem to have been as fully under- 
stood, and as skillfully practised as in later ages. 
At the end of the fourth dynasty, Memphis 
no longer had the honor of giving sovereigns 
to the land of Egypt. The next line of princes 
sprang from the island of Elephantine, on the 
borders of Egypt and Ethiopia, embracing nine 
kings, and giving place in its turn to another 
Memphite dynasty of six. The fifth sovereign 
in this line is the first queen of Egypt that we 
meet with — the celebrated Nitocris. She is said 
to have been distinguished for her beauty, and 
Herodotus records several particulars respecting 
her. Two other dynasties of Memphis suc- 
ceeded, and then came another change. The 
ninth and tenth dynasties, comprising, the 
one four, and the other nineteen kings, were 
from a family of Heracleopolis, and they gave 



10 ANCIENT EGYPT: 

way to the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth dy- 
nasties, all of whom were from Thebes. The 
dynasties which preceded the Theban give 
strong indications, in the brevity of their reigns, 
of the prevalence of confusion and strife, and 
jealousies very possibly arose between the rival 
capitals, Thebes and Memphis. Manetho's list 
gives, under the third king of the twelfth dy- 
nasty, the name of Sesostris, who, if he ever 
existed, is often confounded, by reason of the 
similarity of his exploits, with a prince of the 
eighteenth dynasty. The fourteenth dynasty 
is that of Xois, and the fifteenth again reverts 
to Thebes, for a lengthened period of five dy- 
nasties. 

The lines of princes which have been thus 
rapidly enumerated, as elapsing from the age of 
the pyramids to that of the beginning of the 
sixteenth dynasty, are looked upon with con- 
siderable doubt, as deficient in monumental 
corroboration, and spreading over a period of 
time too great to have transpired within these 
epochs. It is at the commencement of the six- 
teenth dynasty that we come in reach of the 
satisfactory information presented by the cele- 
brated tablet of Abydos. Champollion Figeac 
has, in his dissertation on Egypt, endeavored 
to recognize several monuments, scattered in 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 71 

different directions, as bearing the names of 
princes of the fifteenth dynasty ; but the gene- 
alogical tablet of Abydos begins with the six- 
teenth, and is the most sure and valuable cor- 
roboration of Manetho's list. The historian is 
silent as to the names of the princes of whom 
this dynasty was composed, but the deficiency, 
to a great extent, is supplied by the monuments. 
Some persons, passing over the intermediate 
dynasties, have identified the princes reckoned as 
the sixteenth with those of the twelfth dynasty. 
The prince of this reign of sovereigns of 
whom we have most information is Osirtasen, 
one of a line of Pharaohs, the memorials of 
whose greatness are found throughout different 
parts of Egypt, or have been transported to 
European museums. His reign was long and 
prosperous, and monuments exist, bearing 
various dates belonging to his reign. He ap- 
pears to have been a great and wise monarch, 
ruling the land of Egypt with much regard to 
the welfare of his subjects, who had made great 
advances in all the arts and employments of 
human life. Some writers place in his reign, or 
in that of one of his immediate successors, the 
visit of the patriarch Abraham, recorded in the 
Bible ; whilst others defer this event to the age 
of the race of kings known as the shepherds, to 



h i2 ANCIENT EGYPT : 

whom we shall presently refer. The testimony 
of the Bible is to the fact, that on the occasion 
of Abraham's visit Egypt was a great and civil- 
ized nation, ruled over by a prince bearing the 
title of Pharaoh, that Abraham was treated with 
great kindness by the Egyptians, and that the 
God whom Abraham worshiped made known to 
Pharaoh his displeasure on account of the pro- 
posed treatment of Sarai, Abraham's wife, an 
event which occasioned the removal of the 
patriarch out of the land of Egypt. It is inter- 
esting to have before us, so completely as the 
monuments present them, pictures of the state 
of Egypt at the time of the visit of Abraham. 
He had himself already been separated from 
idolatry, and taught the worship of the true 
God, and his temporary sojourn in the midst of 
this mighty nation may have produced beneficial 
effects on many minds. 

The last king of the dynasty, of which Osir- 
tasen is the most illustrious prince, was Timaos, 
in whose reign there happened a sudden and 
overwhelming incursion of a foreign race, whose 
attacks he attempted in vain to resist, and who 
conquered and overran Egypt for a considerable 
period. While the seat of their dominion was 
Memphis, the descendants of Osirtasen are sup- 
posed to have ruled partially and contempora- 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 73 

neously in Upper Egypt, at Abydos. These 
intruding conquerors bear in Manetho the de- 
signation of the Hyksos, but are more generally 
known as the pastor or shepherd kings. Jose- 
phus makes them to have been the Jews, but 
this construction of their history cannot be sus- 
tained. With more probability, though their 
origin is uncertain, they have been regarded as 
a Scythian race, who overran the country by 
force of arms, and adopted for their own pur- 
poses the manners and religion of the nation 
which they conquered. They committed terrific 
destruction amongst the ancient monuments, and 
if Manetho is to be trusted, although a refined 
and educated people, were guilty of gross bar- 
barities. Their dominion lasted about two cen- 
turies, during which six Pharaohs in succession 
struggled to regain their rightful throne, and 
waged constant war with the invaders. 

During the reign of these strangers, Joseph 
was brought by the Ishmaelite slave-merchants 
into Lower Egypt, and became the inmate of the 
house of Potiphar. The reader of the Bible is 
familiar with the beautiful history of the Hebrew 
captive, and of his elevation, by the providence 
of Him who doeth according to his will among 
the inhabitants of the earth, to the government 
of Egypt. The Pharaoh to whom Joseph was 



74 ANCIENT EGYPT: 

minister is reckoned to have been one of the 
later sovereigns of the shepherd dynasty, while 
Abraham's visit is fixed by some in the time of 
one of the earlier. At length, after repeated 
struggles, the Pharaoh named Amosis succeeded 
in expelling the invaders, and recovering the 
throne of his ancestors. The shepherds are said 
to have departed by way of the desert towards 
Assyria. This king Amosis forms, according to 
some, the first of Manetho's eighteenth dynasty, 
or, according to others, the last of the seven- 
teenth, and the date assigned to him by Cham- 
pollion is 1847 B. C. He was the founder of 
an illustrious line of Pharaohs, during whose 
reigns were erected a large number of the most 
splendid palaces and temples. No less than 
four hieroglyphic tablets supply us with the 
names and titles of these kings. All their works 
indicate a time of peace, and the command of 
most extensive resources — the accumulation of 
the wisdom of Joseph under the shepherd kings. 
It was at this period that emigrations took 
place into Greece, to lay the foundation of its 
renowned states, and to bear the literature and 
civilization of Egypt into Europe. On recover- 
ing possession of Lower Egypt, the conquerors 
naturally looked with suspicion and dread on 
the increasing population of the Israelitish 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 75 

colony, who had been settled in the land of 
Goshen under the administration of the shep- 
herd kings, and who were regarded as their 
friends and allies. The king of Egypt, who 
knew not Joseph, was one of the successors of 
Amosis, and the fear was not unnatural which 
the Egyptians now cherished of the Israelites, 
"lest when there falleth out any war, they join 
also unto our enemies, and nVht against us." 

Before arriving at the stage of the exodus, it 
is well to furnish some account of the mighty 
princes of the eighteenth dynasty. Of Ameno- 
phis, the first of this line, there remain many 
noble monuments, statues, and hieroglyphics. 
Thothmes I. succeeded him, of whom there is a 
statue preserved in the Museum of Turin. He 
was also the beginner of the palace of Medinet 
Abou, a work which was prosecuted by a second 
Thothmes, his son and successor. After the 
reign of this prince a discrepancy occurs in the 
monuments themselves. Some of them assign 
Thothmes III., as successor, and others introduce 
three other personages before his reign. One 
of these is the queen Amense, who governed 
Egypt for the space of. twenty-one years, and 
erected the standing and most beautiful obelisk 
at Karnac, in honor of the god Amon, and in 
memory of her father. Thothmes III. succeed- 



76 &EGWST EGYPT : 

ed his mother, and was snrnamed Mceri, the 
Moaris of the Greeks, who employed his power 
in constructing some of the greatest works in the 
land of Egypt. The most valuable of these, if 
it is not of an earlier date, was a vast lake, which 
he dug in a swampy portion of Middle Egypt, 
on the borders of the desert. At the time of 
inundation the waters flowed into this lake, and 
on their subsiding were detained in it by means 
of flood-gates. The lake became thus a great 
reservoir of water, which was so necessary for 
the fertility of Egypt, and was one of the great- 
est blessings of the land. It still remains in the 
district of the Fayoum. The plaster and gran- 
ite walls of Karnac, the colossal obelisk in front 
of St. John Lateran, at Rome, and perhaps the 
great sphinx, are monuments of the same monarch. 
By him the walls of Karnac were adorned with a 
table of the kings who reigned before him, arranged 
in their chronological order, the picture itself 
being dedicated to the memory of his ancestors. 
Another precious relic of antiquity, known as the 
manuscript of the Turin Museum, to which allu- 
sion has been already made, owes its origin to 
the same reign. 

A prince of the name of Amenoph, and an- 
other Thothmes, intervened before the reign of 
Amenoph III., who built the most ancient parts 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 77 

of the palace at Luxor, the Memnonium, and a 
temple at Elephantine. The vocal statue of 
Memnon is a colossal figure of this monarch. 
Then came Horus, about 1650 B. C, bearing 
the name of the mythological son of Isis and 
Osiris. He built the colonnade to the palace at 
Luxor, and was succeeded by his son Ramses, 
who added to the glory of Karnac. Two broth- 
ers followed, the builders of Kourneh, and of 
the obelisk in the Piazza del Popolo at Rome. 
In this survey we have only mentioned some of 
the more conspicuous works accomplished by 
these princes. The whole period of time is re- 
markable for the erection of palaces, temples, 
and magnificent tombs, the remains of which 
more or less survive, and invite the attention and 
study of the antiquarian. It will hardly, how- 
ever, we think, be interesting to the general read- 
er to pursue further into detail the history of 
Egypt, as it has been expanded by Champollion 
throughout the successive dynasties of Manetho. 
The age of building gave place to one of ex- 
ternal warfare and conquest, and in the person 
of Ramses, probably the Grecian Sesostris, a 
mighty warrior makes his appearance, whose 
victories are commemorated in pictures from 
Ethiopia to the Mediterranean Sea. He marched 
along the coast of Palestine, and his name is 



ITS ANCIENT EGYPT : 

preserved on the rocks near Beyrout, while his 
victories are exhibited on the walls of the Mem- 
noniurn and Karnac, and in the temples of Nu- 
bia. He subdued a portion of Asia, which remained 
in the possession of the Egyptians until Nebuchad- 
nezzar recovered it from Pharaoh-ISTecho. 

Champollion fixes upon the reign of this Ramses 
as the date of the departure of the Israelites, and 
supposes him to have been so much occupied 
with foreign conquests, as to have had no 
opportunity of watching the Hebrews in their 
preparation for removal— a statement which 
does not at all harmonize with the record of the 
Bible. Sir Gardner Wilkinson, on the other 
hand, fixes on Thothmes III., the fourth reign, 
as the time of the exodus, contending, however, 
that this Pharaoh was not drowned in the Red 
Sea, and that the testimony of Scripture does 
not affirm that he was. A much more probable 
hypothesis is that which is brought forward by 
Osburn, in his " Egypt, and her Testimony to 
the Truth," who places the exodus under the 
last monarch of the eighteenth dynasty, about 
whom there is evidence of his not being buried 
with his ancestors in the tomb erected for his 
use — a fact quite in harmony with the interpre- 
tation of the Bible, which affirms him to have 
been drowned in the Red Sea. That no traces 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 79 

are to be found on the monumental inscriptions 
of the plagues with which God visited the Egyp- 
tians is not to be wondered at, when we consider 
the national vanity of the people, and their sub- 
jection to the influence of the priests, who 
would scarcely permit the record of their own 
discomfiture to be inscribed on their own tem- 
ples. The coincidences between the inspired 
history and the disclosures of the monuments 
are numerous and important. It is evident, that 
towards the conclusion of the eighteenth dynasty, 
Egypt from some cause experienced a remarka- 
ble decline in prosperity and strength, not to be 
accounted for by circumstances of which we 
have knowledge, except those connected with 
the exodus of the Hebrews ; and these, accord- 
ing to the Bible, are of sufficient importance 
seriously to have affected the condition of the 
whole nation. By the mighty power of the God 
of the Hebrews, the idolatrous priesthood were 
overwhelmed with shame and put to silence, in 
the land and presence of their idols, and in the 
midst of their worshipers; the wealth of the 
nation was diminished ; the eldest of the youth 
of the Egyptian families were in one night de- 
stroyed ; they who had been slaves and captives 
departed laden with the riches of their oppress- 
ors ; and to complete the national catastrophe, 



80 ANCIENT EGYPT ' 

the king and his host, his chariots, and choice 
warriors, perished in a vain attempt to pursue 
the Israelites through the channel of the Red 
Sea. From such a calamity as this the nation, 
though mighty and full of substance, would not 
recover in a short time ; and there is some rea- 
son to think that the old enemies of Egypt, the 
race of the shepherds, took advantage of these 
events to make a second irruption into the Egyp- 
tian territory, and to resume for a short period 
dominion over Egypt. This fact may be regard- 
ed as somewhat doubtful, but it is not destitute 
of historical testimony in its favor. In case it is 
to be admitted as a matter of history, the se- 
cond triumph of the shepherds was short, and the 
Egyptians were not long in rallying their weak- 
ened forces in sufficient strength once more to 
repel the invaders. 

Little or no intercourse appears to have taken 
place after the exodus, between the Egyptians 
and the Israelites, till the age of David and Solo- 
mon. The feelings with which the two nations 
would regard each other could not be of a friend- 
ly kind. A young prince of the name of Ha- 
dad is said, in the book of Kings, to have escaped 
from Edom when David conquered that countiy, 
to have gone into Egypt, and to have been 
favorably received by the Pharaoh then reign- 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 81 

ing, who assigned him a handsome provision for 
his support, and gave him the sister of his queen in 
marriage. This Hadad, in the reign of Solomon, 
returned to his native country, and gave consid- 
erable trouble by his attempts to recover posses- 
sion of his throne. Yet we find Solomon on 
terms of friendship and alliance with the king of 
Egypt, for he married a daughter of one of the 
Pharaohs of the twenty-first dynasty. His 
father-in-law destroyed the Canaanites in the city 
of Gezer, burned it with fire, and gave the site 
to Solomon, who rebuilt and fortified it. The 
dominion of Solomon bordered on the ancient 
kingdom of Egypt, and was sufficiently powerful 
to be considered its rival. In the latter days of 
David, and in the reign of Solomon, the territo- 
ries of the kingdom of Israel reached their 
greatest extent. In the navigation of the Red 
Sea it was necessary that the ships of Solo- 
mon should have a friendly ally in Egypt, while 
at the same time the possession of the ports of 
Edom gave them a certain amount of indepen- 
dence. The commerce of the land of Canaan 
was not at this period insignificant, and for a 
time the trade of the country with Egypt ren- 
dered their mutual relations most amicable. 
Solomon, we read, had horses brought out of 
Egypt, and linen yarn ; and he paid, if we rightly 



82 ANCIENT EGYPT ! 

interpret the text in the book of Kings, six hun- 
dred shekels of silver for an Egyptian chariot, 
and one hundred and fifty for an Egyptian horse. 
It is singular that, considering this amount of 
alliance and trade, we do not read of Egyptian, 
but rather of Tyrian artists employed in the 
erection of the temple, and even of the house 
which Solomon built for his wife. This, with the 
facts that occurred so soon afterwards, leads to 
the belief that the marriage with the daughter 
of Pharaoh was, like many royal marriages, a 
political alliance, and that an undue amount of 
jealousy prevailed notwithstanding between the 
two nations. The influence of the Egyptian 
princess, to whatever reasons her alliance with 
Solomon is to be ascribed, was not inconsiderable 
over the mind of her husband ; she led away his 
heart from the worship of the true God, and 
the idolatries of the land of the Nile were prac- 
tised near the temple of Jehovah at Jerusalem. 
It was not long before the real feelings of the 
two nations became manifest. Jeroboam, in the 
reign of Solomon, lifted up his hand against the 
king, and being overcome, fled to Egypt, where 
he found a home and protection under the reign 
of Shishak. This Pharaoh was one of a differ- 
ent dynasty from that to which Solomon was 
allied by marriage ; and it is worthy of observa- 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 83 

tion, how completely the facts of Egyptian his- 
tory are here in harmony with the Biblical re- 
cords. During a time of civil commotion, Shishak 
had driven out the last prince of the Tanite line, 
and established a new dynasty, bearing the name 
of the Bubastine, from Bubastis, an ancient city 
of Lower Egypt. On the death of Solomon, 
and the division of the kingdom between Reho- 
boam and Jeroboam, this Shishak showed his 
enmity to the friends and allies of the Tanite dy- 
nasty by an alliance with Jeroboam. He enter- 
ed Judaea at the head of a mighty army, cap- 
tured Jerusalem, and carried off the treasures 
from the temple and the house of the king, and 
also the shields of gold which Solomon had 
made. This king of Egypt is not mentioned by 
either Herodotus or Diodorus Siculus, but the 
monuments give his name in several places ; and 
though some have thought that the Shishak of 
Scripture is the great conqueror known as Sesos- 
tris, he is clearly identified with the chief of 
the Bubastine dynasty. 

Nor is even more specific corroboration in this 
instance wanting. In the great hall of Karnac 
his exploits are exhibited and enumerated. The 
monarch is depicted holding by the hair a num- 
ber of kneeling figures, and with his uplifted 
right hand he is ready to cut them in pieces with 



8-4 ANCIENT EGYPT: 

his battle-ax. The god of Egypt drives before him 
a group of captives, with their hands tied, behind 
them. A first and second group of such cap- 
tives make their appearance. Among the fig- 
ures in this second group is the face of a king 
having conspicuously a Jewish aspect. This 
monarch, as well as his companions, bears a shield 
or cartouche, on which is written his name in 
hieroglyphics. Most of the other names are 
w r orn out by time, and have become illegible, 
but this one is clearly distinguishable in hiero- 
glyphic characters as " King of Judah ;" so that 
here we have the very memorial of the victory 
over Rehoboam by the Egyptian conqueror, and 
a picture of the vanquished prince. This monu- 
ment is the most complete and unambiguous 
corroboration of the Scripture history which the 
study of Egyptian antiquities has revealed. 

As the people of Israel became, by their di- 
visions and idolatries, less able to maintain their 
own frontiers, their territory was more exposed 
to the incursion of the two great powers between 
whom it was situated. Assyria began to take 
an active interest in the affairs of Palestine, and 
thence to repress the conquests and diminish the 
power of Egypt. The oppressions of Assyria 
led the Jews, contrary to the Divine injunctions, 
to look to Egypt for help. They were reproved, 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 85 

because they trusted on " the staff of this bruis- 
ed reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man 
lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it : so 
is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on 
him." Israel had been rendered tributary to 
Assyria, but, depending on Egypt for help, had 
refused payment of the tribute. Egypt being at the 
time unable or unwilling to render the assistance 
required, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and 
carried its inhabitants away captive, leaving Ju- 
dah as the surviving remnant of the glory of the 
kingdom of David and Solomon. 

An invasion of the land of Egypt took place 
from Ethiopia, and three princes of the Ethiopian 
dynasty secured possession of the throne. One 
of these, known in the Scriptures as Tirhakah, 
has his name and title inscribed on the palace of 
Medinet Abou, at Thebes, and in several other 
places. He came out to the assistance of Hez- 
ekiah against Sennacherib, and his name is re- 
corded in the Scriptures and on the monuments as 
that of a mighty monarch. His death was the oc- 
casion of much civil commotion, and a family from 
Sais obtained possession of the vacant throne. 

To this line of monarchs belong Pharaoh- 
Necho and Pharaoh-Hophra, both of whom are 
mentioned in the Jewish annals. The former 
went out against the king of Assyria to battle 



86 ANCIENT EGYPT ! 

to the Euphrates. The good king of Judah, 
Josiah, was at that time a tributary monarch to 
Assyria, and refused to allow Necho to pass 
through his dominions. This refusal brought 
on a battle, in which Josiah was slain. Jehoa- 
haz, who succeeded Josiah, was deposed by 'Ke- 
en o on his victorious return from the Euphrates, 
and was carried a captive into Egypt. The suc- 
cessful monarch appointed Jehoiakim to be king, 
and the kingdom of Judah was subject for a time 
to the power of Egypt. Assyria in its turn van- 
quished, and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon 
defeated JSTecho, recovered all the possessions of 
Assyria, which had been conquered by the Egyp- 
tians, from the Euphrates to the river of Egypt, 
invaded his kingdom, and carried away captive 
some of its inhabitants. The empire of Assyria 
was now in the ascendant. The Jews, under 
Zedekiah, endeavored by an alliance with Egypt 
to resist Assyria ; and when they were besieged 
in Jerusalem, Pharaoh-Hophra raised the seige, 
and delivered Judah for a short time, but Nebu- 
chadnezzar returned, and earned away Zede- 
kiah and his princes to Babylon. 

Psammeticus was the last of the dynasty of 
Sais. During the lapse of another century 
from the capture of Jerusalem, Cyrus, the Per- 
sian, had taken the kingdom of the Chaldeeans, 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 87 

and was succeeded by the greatest enemy of 
Egypt, Cambyses his son. He overran the 
whole Valley of the Nile, plundering and de- 
molishing the temples, and established over this 
ancient land of civilization the dominion of a fierce 
military government, reducing Egypt to a prov- 
ince of the Persian empire. That empire itself 
was destined, however, ere long to give way to 
the power of Greece ; and with Alexander's 
conquest commences a new era of magnificence 
and splendor in Egyptian history. Ancient build- 
ings were restored, and new ones erected, under 
the sway of the Ptolemies, rivaling those of the 
age of the Pharaohs. Denderah and Edfou bear 

o 

witness to the work of the men of this genera- 
tion ; and a temple to the worship of the true God 
was erected and maintained at Leontopolis till 
the age of Vespasian. 

In the prophetic writings of the Old Testa- 
ment, Egypt is often alluded to. Isaiah publishes 
" the burden of Egypt," in the nineteenth chap- 
ter of his prophecy, in which he foretells the in- 
ternal dissensions of the country, and, as is com- 
monly interpreted, the cruelties of Cambyses, 
and the severe calamities under which the coun- 
try suffered He announces also the worship of 
the true God, and the deliverance of Egypt, as 
is conjectured, by the interposition of Alexander 



88 ANCIENT EGYPT: 

tlie Great, in the age of the Ptolemies and Se- 
leucidse. Jeremiah, who lived in the time of 
Nebuchadnezzar's attack on Jerusalem, and sub- 
sequently became a sojourner in the Egyptian 
territory, has many messages from God respect- 
ing the history of the land of Egypt, predicting 
particularly its overthrow by the power of Neb- 
uchadnezzar. Ezekiel -foretells in like manner 
the conquest of Egypt, and its subsequent de- 
gradation as the basest of the kingdoms, no more 
exalted above the nations, and having no more 
its own prince. Joel declares, that " Egypt 
shall be a desolation ;" and Zechariah, that its 
" sceptre shall depart." The survey of Egyp- 
tian history which is already before us, and its 
present abject condition amidst the nations, suf- 
ficiently illustrate the truth of these prophecies. 

The race of the Ptolemies ended with the bat- 
tle of Actium, and the kingdom of " iron, which 
breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things," ex- 
tended its power over the land of pyramids and 
obelisks. Roman emperors thought it worth while 
to have their names engraven on Egyptian tem- 
ples, and the temple of Esneh bears no less than 
four times the name of the emperor Commodus. 

Before concluding this notice of these length- 
ened and ancient annals, there is one fact which, 
from its importance and date, demands attention. 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 89 

About eighteen hundred and fifty years ago, 
when Egypt had already passed under the 
Roman yoke, and the cruel and ungovernable 
Herod was ruling in Judaea, a company of hum- 
ble travelers set out hastily by night from the 
little town of Bethlehem, six miles south of the 
Jewish capital, to wend their way into Egypt. 
They acted under no vain or idle impulse, in 
desiring to visit the land of the bondage of their 
fathers. An angel of the Lord had said in a 
vision by night to Joseph, the leader of the 
party, " Arise, and take the young Child and his 
mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there 
until I bring thee word." Already, in connec- 
tion with the birth of this young child, accus- 
tomed to Divine interpositions and revelations, 
they were not disobedient to the heavenly vision. 
He who gave them the message had also pro- 
vided for the wants of the journey, in the offer- 
ings of Arabian sages in worship to the young 
Child. Probably it was the first visit of Joseph 
and Mary to this distant land, and anxiously, 
no doubt, did the thoughtful mother ponder in 
her heart what could be its ultimate design. 
The Bible has not removed the veil from before 
the scenes of this deeply interesting journey ; 
the mode of their conveyance, the incidents that 
befell them, and the resting-places where they 



90 ANCIENT EGYPT : 

stayed, are not recorded. Tradition, with what 
truth is not known, points out as the place of 
their temporary sojourn the neighborhood of the 
ancient Memphis, within sight of the pyramids, 
where stood the temple of Onias, and where a 
great many Jews had settled. This is said to 
have been for some considerable time the home 
of Jesus, the Son of Mary, and also most truly 
the Son of God. Isaiah had written in the book 
of his prophecy, " Behold, the Lord shall come 
into Egypt : and the idols of Egypt shall be 
moved at his presence ;" and stories are told, 
but evidence of their truth is wanting, of idol 
gods in this city of Egypt showing reverence, 
like Dagon before the ark of the Lord, in the 
presence of that holy One who was now made 
flesh and dwelt among us. No event in Egyp- 
tian history is so great as this, and never did 
Egypt receive so glorious a visitor ; for He who 
then appeared in the midst of her, though in 
the form of a servant, thought it not robbery — 
no unjust assumption — to be equal with God, 
The life which was sheltered from the fury of 
Herod by this visit to Egypt, was in subsequent 
years devoted to the instruction of guilty men 
in the way of salvation, and was finally surren- 
dered as an acceptable offering, that God " might 
be just and yet the justifier of him which be- 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 91 

lieveth in Jesus." It is through faith in Him 
who was once an infant in the Valley of the 
Nile, but who at the same time was the King of 
kings and Lord of lords, that the soul of man 
passes from death unto life ; and it is the power 
of his gracious Spirit which renews and cleanses 
the hearts of transgressors. 

He who distributed the nations, and gave 
them their place and duration, assigned to the 
inhabitants of Egypt no trivial share in the ac- 
complishment of his all-comprehensive plans. 
It was under his observation and providence 
that every event in the rise, progress, and de- 
cline of this marvelous kingdom occurred ; by 
him its monuments have been made to testify to 
the truth and authority of his oracles ; his guid- 
ance has given understanding of them at the 
right moment in the history of man ; and from 
the fertile banks and rolling waters of the land 
of Egypt, there shall one day ascend the song 
of adoration and praise to the Lord of the whole 
earth. Although still reckoned among the 
basest of kingdoms, " in that day shall Israel be 
the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a 
blessing in the midst of the land: whom the 
Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt 
my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, 
and Israel mine inheritance," Isa. xix, 24, 25. 



92 ancient egypt: 



CHAPTER IV. 

HIEROGLYPHIC AL METHOD OF WRITING AN AC- 
COUNT OE THE DISCOVERY IN MODERN TIMES 
OF THE METHOD OF PERUSING IT, AND OF ITS 
NATURE. 

To every studious reader of the book of Gene- 
sis it must be evident that it does not profess to 
record all the transactions which took place be- 
tween the Almighty and his dependent creatures 
in the early ages of the world's history. As in 
the record of the life and actions of our blessed 
Saviour, the writer of the fourth Gospel informs 
us that part only has been preserved to us, se- 
lected with a view to the profit of the readers ; 
so also of the earlier revelations it may be said, 
that only those things have been written which, 
by the Spirit of sovereign wisdom, were consid- 
ered "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for 
correction, for instruction in righteousness, " and 
which might prepare for the more distinct and 
complete communications from God in future 
ages. In proportion as we recede into antiquity 
the information which is given us is more lim- 
ited, and the events which took place in the gar- 
den of Eden occupy a veiy small part of the 
book of Genesis. Amidst many subjects on 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 93 

which the sacred Scriptures are silent, may be 
reckoned the origin of language and of the art 
of writing. 

It has been a matter of prolonged disputation 
whether language was a discovery of man's 
own faculties, or a gift bestowed upon him by 
his bountiful Creator ; the latter opinion is that 
which has most probability in its favor. The 
science of comparative anatomy, and the study 
of the physical history of the human race, 
abundantly confirm the plain declaration of 
Scripture, that mankind has proceeded from one 
pair ; and the comparison and study of languages 
as plainly teach us, that all the various dialects 
of the earth's inhabitants are the result of a 
once common language, in which division and 
separation have arisen from a sudden and violent 
cause. It is natural to suppose, that in common 
with the arts which were necessary for the com- 
fort and sustenance of the newly- created man, 
this language was taught him by the immediate 
inspiration of his Creator. The first man cer- 
tainly never lay in a cradle, and it is probable 
that he never learned, after the manner of his 
descendants, to dread the fire by feeling its ef- 
fects, or to determine the form and distance of 
objects by the exercise of the sense of touch. 
On him was at once bestowed a knowledge of 



94 ancient egypt: 

the elements around him, and of their qualities. 
And so also we suppose he had at once the gift 
of language, fitting him for intercourse with his 
companion and helpmeet, and for the high and 
solemn worship of his Creator, together with 
instruction in the earliest principles of the art of 
writing. 

The confusion of tongues introducing changes 
into the languages of mankind, would occasion 
difference in the method of writing : and as the 
human race became divided, these differences 
would gradually increase, until it would be as 
difficult for one tribe to decipher each other's 
records, as to understand each other's speech. 
In sacred and profane history, we meet with in- 
dications of the employment of the art of writing 
at a very early period, with accumulations of 
ancient chronicles, and the occurrence of events 
by which they were destroyed, and have ceased 
to be found amongst us. The preservation of 
the immense library at Alexandria, if Divine 
Providence had permitted it, would have pre- 
sented us with many thousand volumes, the re- 
cords of the reigns of the Pharaohs, and the tes- 
timonies of the far-famed wisdom of the Egyp- 
tians. Now, however, we have handed down 
to us the inscriptions on their monuments, and 
the records on their rolls of papyrus. These 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 95 

latter exist in great numbers, and constitute some 
of the most valuable treasures of modern muse- 
ums. The writing is of three kinds, but the most 
remarkable is that which is found on the monu- 
ments, and which is known as the hieroglyphic. 
To an observer ignorant of its meaning, it ap- 
pears a combination of figures of animals, parts 
of the human body, various mechanical instru- 
ments, and sundry wholly inexplicable forms ; 
and it is no wonder, that for many years it should 
have been regarded as a mysterious cipher, pur- 
posely concealing from common eyes the secrets 
of nature, politics, or religion. 

When, in modern ages, the learned became 
acquainted with the existence of Egyptian in- 
scriptions, the most extravagant conjectures were 
formed respecting them. Some undertook to 
prove that the doctrines of Christianity were en- 
graven on the ancient obelisks, some that the 
hieroglyphical inscriptions were transcripts of 
the Psalms of David, and others contended that 
they were only ornamental. Attention was thus 
thoroughly awakened, and curiosity excited as 
to their interpretation. The scholar naturally 
referred to the pages of the Greek and Roman 
classics, but found that his favorite authors sup- 
plied little or no information, except that the 
perusal of the monumental inscriptions was a 



9b ANCIENT EGYPT! 

subject on which they, as well as the moderns, 
were thoroughly ignorant ; and although Roman 
arms had conquered Egypt, and Roman empe- 
rors embellished Rome with Egyptian obelisks, 
no clue could be discovered to the meaning of 
this handwriting upon the wall, 

The first step made towards the accomplish- 
ment of the difficult task, was to determine 
something respecting the nature of the old Egyp- 
tian language. In 1656, Kircher published six 
huge folios, containing professed interpretations 
of the Egyptian monuments. Unprofitable as 
these volumes proved for the immediate pur- 
pose of their publication, they yet served as a 
valuable collection of material, and directed at- 
tention to the Coptic tongue, in which many 
manuscripts existed in the Vatican Library at 
Rome. The Copts are the nominal Christians 
and learned men of Egypt, and the language 
which they use in their religious documents and 
services is the Coptic, which is translated into 
Arabic for the use of the unlearned. The Cop- 
tic has been found to be, in the main, the ancient 
Egyptian, written in Greek characters, with some 
few old Egyptian ones retained, for which no 
corresponding letters were found in Greek. By 
the researches of Jablonski and Quatremere, the 
close connection between the Coptic and the an- 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. D7 

cient Egyptian was clearly ascertained. The 
Coptic, as at present known to us, came into use 
with Christianity, and has undergone changes 
and modifications in the lapse of years. About 
a hundred years ago it ceased to be a spoken 
language, and is now preserved, and has to be 
studied, in the Christian liturgies of Egypt. 

On the return of Xapoleon's expedition into 
Egypt, a work was compiled by the learned men 
of France, who had accompanied the expedition, 
which more than any other work in modern 
times promoted an impetus in Egyptian studies, 
and assisted to direct them. It furnished the 
most learned men in Europe with copies of the 
inscriptions they had to examine, enabled them 
simultaneously to pursue their researches, and 
easily to confer with one another on their pro- 
gress. This work is known as the " Description 
of Egypt," and a few copies are found in our 
largest English libraries. 

The second step taken in the discovery of the 
mysterious meaning of the hieroglyphics, was 
the suggestion that the characters of which they 
are composed represent not ideas, but sounds. 
Written languages are of two kinds ; the more 
numerous class, and that with which we are 
most acquainted, is formed by means of an al- 
phabet of letters which represent sounds, and not 
7 



US AXCIEXT EGYPT : 

ideas, as in the English and Greek languages. 
The other class has signs of ideas or things, as 
in the case of the Chinese. The latter kind of 
written language is that of the infancy of man- 
kind, and the most ancient. In books of instruc- 
tion for the nursery we are accustomed still to 
teach our alphabet of signs of sound, by com- 
bining them with signs of things — of ideas to 
which they relate, thus : — 

A was an archer, and shot at a frog ; 
B was a butcher, and had a black dog ; 

is the beginning of an illustrated alphabet in 
which the letter A is associated with the figure 
of the archer shooting at the frog, and B with 
the stout butcher and his black dog. For a long 
time it was thought that the figures in the Egyp- 
tian writing were wholly the signs of ideas — in 
other words, that it was ideographic, and not 
phonetic. To Zoega, a native of Denmark, and 
to Silvestre Sacy, a Frenchman, belongs the 
honor of correcting this mistake. The latter em- 
ployed the word phonetic to denote his meaning. 
It is derived from the Greek word 'phone, a sound, 
and signifies that the figures represent sounds 
and not ideas. Observation became directed to 
the singular groups of hieroglyphics which are 
inclosed in an oblong ring, and have since received 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 90 

the name of cartouches, and which were con- 
jectured to contain proper names. If this con- 
jecture were correct, it was seen that they, better 
than any other part of the writing, would enable 
the student to ascertain whether the characters ex- 
pressed sounds or ideas ; for it is difficult to con- 
ceive how these proper names could be written 
at length in a language not expressing sound. 
These groups accordingly began to be studied 
with care, and where copies of the same inscrip- 
tion existed in the different forms of writing which 
the Egyptians practised, attention was paid to 
the occurrence of the names in the lists. Sacy, 
in 1802, discovered the groups which went to 
compose the names of Ptolemy, Arsinoe, and 
Alexander, and affirmed that the characters of 
which these groups were composed were letters. 
Sacy's observation related, not to hieroglyphics, 
but to the most modern form of writing amongst 
the Egyptians, commonly called the demotic, and 
he is entitled to be regarded as the discoverer 
of the demotic alphabet. The hieroglyphics yet 
remained in their obscurity. 

Having traced the matter thus far, it is easy 
to perceive at this stage of the researches the 
value of those inscriptions in which the same 
subject is repeated in two or three different 
modes of writing ; affording, as they do, an op- 



100 ANCIENT EGYPT : 

portunity of comparison of the different parts, 
sentences, and words of which they are composd. 
Inscriptions of this kind were by no means infre- 
quent in the ancient monuments ; some of them 
as brief as in the case of Pilate's inscription on 
the cross, written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, 
and others of considerable length. Amongst 
them is one which claims our attention, inasmuch 
as the monument on which it is found is to be 
regarded as the foundation of the modern science 
of hieroglyphics. It is the monument deposited 
in the British Museum, commonly known as the 
Rosetta stone. It was discovered by the French 
during their expedition to Egypt, among the 
ruins of Fort St. Julien, at the mouth of the Ro- 
setta branch of the Nile. The fort is situated 
about two miles and a half from the town of 
Rosetta. On the capitulation of Alexandria, it 
was insisted on by the British that the articles 
collected by the French Institute should be given 
up, and though the demand was waved in 
reference to the objects of natural history, the 
antiquities, and the Rosetta stone amongst them, 
became the property of the British government. 
It w^as placed on board the frigate Egyptienne, 
which had been captured in the harbor, and 
brought to England in 1802. 

It is a piece of black basalt, three feet long by 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 101 

two feet and a half wide, and from ten to twelve 
inches thick, rough, and not written upon on the 
under surface. It contains three kinds of in- 
scription — the one hieroglyphic, the second de- 
motic, and the third Greek. Copies of these 
inscriptions were circulated throughout Europe, 
and the Rosetta stone became an excellent first 
lesson-book in the alphabet for learned men. 
Akerblad, a Swedish gentleman, followed in the 
track of De Sacy, and enlarged our acquaintance 
with the alphabet of the demotic text, and Dr. 
Thomas Young published a translation of the 
demotic inscription from comparison with the 
Greek. Germany brought in her contribution 
to the general stock, by the labors of Tychsen 
of Gottingen, who proved that the hieratic char- 
acter, as it is called, — a mode of writing which 
did not appear on the Rosetta stone, — was a kind 
of abbreviation or short-hand of the hieroglyphic. 
Heyne in Germany, and Porson in England, 
studied the Greek inscription, and as soon as it 
could be determined that the three were trans- 
lations one of another, it served to encourage 
hope, and to prove that the knowledge of hiero- 
glyphics had not perished in the age of Camby- 
ses, but must have been familiar to some at least 
of the Greeks. 

We are now on the eve of removing the veil 



102 ANCIENT EGYPT : 

from the land of Egypt, and perusing her an- 
cient monumental inscriptions. In every step 
of the preliminary investigation there has been 
strife among the earnest students, who have vied 
with each other in eagerness to penetrate the 
secret, and the same rivalry continues to the end. 
The competitors at the conclusion of the race 
are Dr. Thomas Young, Messrs. J. W. Bankes 
and Salt, and Champollion. Dr. Young, on an 
examination of the Rosetta stone, discovered two 
groups, the one of which he interpreted as con- 
taining the name of Ptolemy, and the other, 
having the sign of the feminine, that of Berenice. 
The names were right, but the methods of read- 
ing them incorrect. Dr. Young understood every 
hieroglyphic to be a syllable representing a vowel 
and a consonant, a principle which was incor- 
rect, and would not work when sought to be 
applied. His discoveries were published in the 
supplement to the fourth and fifth editions of 
the Encyclopaedia Britannica, under the article 
of Egypt, and he is entitled to the praise of fix- 
ing the value of five characters in the language, 
I, N, P, T, and F. Messrs. Bankes and Salt, 
in 1818, identified the name of Cleopatra on a 
cartouche on an obelisk in the island of Philae. 
The obelisk was brought to England. It con- 
tained two cartouches, joined together, one of 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORT. 103 

them having the same characters in it as those 
which had been identified by Dr. Young as those 
of Ptolemy. The obelisk had been erected on 
a pedestal, which contained a petition of the 
priests of Sais to Ptolemy and Cleopatra. From a 
comparison of the two names, they fixed the value 
of the signs for the letters P, T, and L, which oc- 
cur in both names, as letters and not as syllables. 
Dr. Young, in the meantime, had attempted to 
apply his discovery to the interpretation of other 
hieroglyphics, and had found it unavailing, and 
in consequence, so late as 1823, states, "that 
the Egyptians did not make use of an alphabet 
to express sounds and articulation of certain 
words before the dominion of the Greeks and 
Romans. " He had thus made a discovery which 
he did not know how to use, and which he was 
now himself willing to abandon. 

In September, 1822, Jean Francois Champol- 
lion le jeune, a native of Figeac, in the depart- 
ment of the Lot, and subsequently professor of 
history in the Lyceum of Grenoble, presented 
to the Academy of Belles-lettres " A Memoir on 
Phonetic Hieroglyphics/ ' and subsequently pub- 
lished it, under the title of " Letters to M. Da- 
cier, Secretary of the Academy." This Memoir 
is to be regarded as the first unequivocal de- 
monstration of the fact, " that the ancient Egyp- 



104 ANCIENT EGYPT! 

tians made use of pure hieroglyphical signs ; 
that is to say, of characters representing the 
image of material objects to represent simply 
the sounds of the names of Greek and Roman 
sovereigns inscribed on the monuments of Den- 
derah, Thebes, Esneh, Edfou, Ombos, and 
Philse." Previously to this Memoir, Champol- 
lion had expressed, in his " Egypt under the 
Pharaohs," in 1814, his hope that these hiero- 
glyphics would be found to represent sounds, 
and he had now the pleasure of verifying his an- 
ticipation. At first his conclusions were cautiously 
confined to the reigns of the Greeks and Romans; 
but he shortly afterwards published his $t Ac- 
count of the Hieroglyphical System," in which 
the principle of interpretation was extended 
without reference to this particular age, and the 
greater portion of the signs used in hieroglyphic 
writing were shown to represent sounds, and re- 
duced to an alphabet of sixteen distinct articu- 
lations, for each of which there were a number 
of symbols differing in figure, but having the 
same sound. 

It is not a necessary, and would be by no means 
a pleasant task, to record the unhappy dissen- 
sions which occurred between Champollion and 
Dr. Young, on the subject of their respective 
claims to the honor of these discoveries — a dis- 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY 105 

cussion, in which there mingled a share of that 
national rivalry which has so long subsisted be- 
tween England and France, but which, it is 
gratifying to believe, is gradually being removed, 
by the increased intercourse of recent times, and 
the subduing influence of the principles of the 
Gospel of peace. It is sufficient to observe, that 
the main outlines of the alphabetical system, es- 
tablished by the combined researches of English 
and French scholars, have, with some alterations, 
omissions, and additions, been corroborated by 
subsequent investigations, and that the principles 
of Chainpollion's alphabet have since been suc- 
cessfully applied to the interpretation of Egyp- 
tian hieroglyphics. While some have entered 
the field of controversy to find fault with these 
discoveries, and to impugn their truth and value, 
others have taken upon themselves, with more 
success, the pleasant and more fruitful occupa- 
tion of establishing the harmony between the re- 
sults which they afford and the revelation of 
Scripture, together with the advantages which 
they furnish to the diligent student and interpreter 
of its sacred pages. The French government, 
in 1828, sent out a commission, with Champol- 
lion at its head ; and the duke of Tuscany uni- 
ting in the same design, the two expeditions were 
combined, and Champollion and Professor Ippo- 



106 ANCIENT EGYPT I 

lito Rosellini, of the University of Pisa, each 
having four artists from his own country under 
his direction, visited Egypt, and examined the 
monuments from Memphis to the second cata- 
ract. It was determined that tw r o copies should be 
taken of every monument, the one by the French 
and the other by the Italian artists, and that the 
publication should be by mutual arrangement on 
their return. The expedition came back to Eu- 
rope in 1829. Champollion undertook the task 
of publishing the historical monuments and the 
grammar of the hieroglyphic language, and Rosel- 
lini that of the civil monuments, with the pre- 
paration of a dictionary. Disease and death, how- 
ever, arrested the progress of Champollion, the 
principal discoverer of the secrets of Egypt. In- 
tense study and labor had exhausted the frame 
of this highly gifted man. His Egyptian re- 
searches, we know, did not lead him to cherish 
doubts of the value of that Rook which alone 
discloses the path to glory, honor, and immor- 
tality ; and we may be permitted to indulge the 
hope, that the facts of the New Testament were 
regarded by him to be as authentic as those of 
the Old, that they secured his attention, and won 
the affection of his heart for that glorious Saviour, 
over whose cross was written a three-fold inscrip- 
tion, more precious than that of the Rosetta 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 107 

stone. On one occasion only was Champollion 
able, after his return from Egypt, to address his 
pupils in his capacity as professor in the Royal 
Academy. His grammar was completed by him 
on his death-bed, and left as a legacy to poster- 
ity ; and in December, 1831, the learned men 
of Paris followed him to his grave. His works 
have been published at the expense of the nation, 
and the results of the great expedition from 
France and Tuscany are now before the public. 
Prussia, imitating these examples, has sent out 
Dr. Lepsius, with seven scientific companions ; 
and Egyptian research, by the aid of Champol- 
lion's discoveries, is now prosecuted in every 
museum in Europe. 

To those who desire to be able to read the 
hieroglyphic inscriptions without dependence on 
the labors of others, it is necessary that they 
should first become familiar with the Coptic or 
ancient Egyptian language. When Christianity 
gained a footing in Egypt, the ancient system of 
writing was abandoned, on account of its idola- 
trous associations, and the translations of the 
Bible and other religious books were written with 
Greek characters, some few only being retained 
from the Egyptian, for which no corresponding 
Greek letters existed. It was impossible to pre- 
vent the introduction, at the time of the Greek 



108 ANCIENT EGYPT : 

ascendancy in Egypt, of many Greek words and 
ideas, and these in the monuments of that date 
are rendered into the old Egyptian language 
by writing them in the monumental style, very 
much as some of the ecclesiastical words of the 
Greek New Testament are rendered by English 
letters in our common version. Christianity 
also brought its own peculiar ideas : and thus, 
in virtue of the introduction of several foreign 
elements, which have become absorbed into the 
language, the present Coptic is by no means per- 
fectly similar to the ancient Egyptian, but has 
gradually grown out of it. 

It is difficult, without giving specimens of the 
writing, to explain the nature of the old Egyp- 
tian language, but our hope is to enable the 
reader to understand the general principles on 
which it was formed, and for further information 
he must refer to larger and more copious vol- 
umes. In the Miscellanies (Stromata) of Cle- 
ment of Alexandria is a remarkable passage, to 
which much reference is made by the learned, 
and the meaning of w T hich has been, to a great 
extent, confirmed by modern discoveries. The 
passage affirms that the Egyptians used three 
different sorts of writing — the epistolographic, or 
current hand, answering to that which has been 
otherwise called the demotic, or enchorial; the 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 109 

hieratic, the one used by the priests ; and the 
hieroglyphic, or monumental. These are the 
three forms of Egyptian writing. Clement then 
tells us that the last is composed of alphabeti- 
cal words and of symbolical expressions, the 
latter being representations of objects, or of 
ideas drawn from them, symbols, or arbitrary 
signs. A comparison of these three forms of 
writing leads to the conviction that they do not 
constitute a different language, but simply dif- 
ferent modes of writing the same sounds. The 
second was, in fact, a running hand of the hiero- 
glyphical ; and the third, which was not pro- 
bably in use till after the Persian conquest, is 
one still more expeditious. This last kind is 
contained on the Rosetta stone, but on no monu- 
ments or papyri of an earlier date than the age 
of the Ptolemies. 

The hieroglyphical is divided into the pure 
and the linear. In the former the figures are 
more fully sketched, and sometimes shaded ; in 
the latter they are simply marked by lines. The 
pure were generally sculptured or painted, and 
both sculptured and painted in the grander 
monuments. Figures of all sorts were employed 
in this method of writing. It may be said to 
comprise all the beasts on the earth, the birds 
in the air, and the fishes in the sea. There are 



110 ANCIENT EGYPT : 

to be seen the celestial bodies, man of all ages 
and of both sexes, with various parts of the 
human body, quadrupeds wild and- tame, birds, 
insects, reptiles, and fishes ; plants, flowers, and 
fruits ; household utensils, and articles of furni- 
ture and of dress ; instruments used in trade 
and manufacture, buildings of all kinds, geome- 
trical figures, and fabulous monsters, such as the 
Egyptians worshiped and admired. An inscrip- 
tion of this kind presents an extraordinary as- 
sortment to the eye of an ignorant observer, 
especially if it be of any length. The colors of 
the different figures have a meaning, and were 
laid on according to certain rules. The hiero- 
glyphics were read either from top to bottom in 
vertical columns, or in horizontal lines, the rule 
being to begin in the direction to which the 
heads of the animals were turned. 

The signs or figures were of three classes, 
the first being those of imitation — pictures of 
the object represented, as a disk for the sun, an 
asterisk for a star, and a crescent for the moon. 
These were, however, sometimes very roughly 
drawn. The second class were the symbols, by 
which certain ideas were intended to be conveyed, 
more or less connected with or suggested by the 
object given. These were of various kinds. 
Sometimes the part was put for the whole — as 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. Ill 

the head of an ox or of a goose, instead of the 
whole drawing of an ox or of a goose. Some- 
times the effect stood for the cause, or the cause 
for the effect — thus, the picture of the sun re- 
presents the day. A fancied resemblance, and 
an arbitrary connection between the object and 
the idea, were also reasons for the use of certain 
signs. Thus, a sovereign was denoted by a 
bee, because the insect has its queen bee, and 
is subject to her government. Vision is signi- 
fied by the eye of the hawk, because the bird, it 
is supposed, is able to gaze most intently on the 
sun. Justice is symbolized by an ostrich feather, 
because all the feathers of the body of an ostrich 
are equal. Another kind of symbol is that 
which commonly prevails in the Chinese lan- 
guage. It arises from the peculiarity of the 
same sound expressing often different ideas, as 
if an Englishman, instead of writing the word 
"hair," drew a picture of the animal whose 
name is so sounded, though meaning to denote 
the hair of the head. In the diplomatic rela- 
tions between ourselves and the Chinese govern- 
ment during the late Chinese war, many most 
unpleasant mistakes occurred from this peculiar- 
ity of the language, and British plenipotentiaries 
felt themselves aggrieved and insulted by what, 
if they had better understood the Chinese, would 



112 ANCIENT EGYPT! 

have been known to be only the natural and or- 
dinary methods of the language. " The notion/ ' 
observes the author of the Pictorial History of 
England, "of insulting epithets being applied to 
our agents in lieu of their own names is an utter 
delusion, arising from ignorance of the fact that 
the Chinese, having no alphabet, are obliged to 
express new names by the words in their lan- 
guage which approach nearest to the sound. 
When lord ISTapier was offended at being writ- 
ten down 'laboriously vile,' Mr. Morrisou was 
written down ' a polite horse,' and another resi- 
dent at Macao ' a hundred -weight of hemp.' " 
On the same principle as in these Chinese trans- 
lations, a physician being called in ancient Egyp- 
tian " chini" and a particular kind of duck being 
also called "chin," the figure of the duck it is 
thought stands for the physician, not because 
of any other connection — for the Egyptians had 
no notion of our modern word quackery — besides 
the correspondence in sound between the two 
terms. 

The last kind of symbols is very nearly allied 
to the third and largest class of hieroglyphical 
figures — the phonetic. The principle of repre- 
senting an object by the image of another agree- 
ing with it in the sound of its name, leads by a 
simple inference to such an observation of sound 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 113 

as suggests syllabic or alphabetic writing. For 
some time after the discovery of Champollion 
it was considered that the phonetic signs of the 
Egyptians were purely alphabetical. Dr. Young 
had failed in his attempt to construe them as 
exclusively syllabic, and Champollion laid the 
foundation of the hieroglyphic alphabet by con- 
sidering them as representing the sounds of let- 
ters rather than syllables. Recently, Lepsius 
has demonstrated that many of Champollion's 
alphabetical signs are not purely alphabetical, 
but of a syllabic character, representing certain 
combinations of sound, syllables or more than 
syllables, and that the use of strictly phonetic 
and alphabetical signs increases with the age of 
the Ptolemies and the Romans. Lepsius con- 
fines the number of alphabetical signs to thirty- 
four. 

Phonetic signs may now be divided into the 
simple phonetic, or alphabetical, and the com- 
pound phonetic — signs of certain combinations 
of sounds. The principle on which the alpha- 
bet is constructed, is simple, curious, evidently 
of high antiquity, and not difficult of compre- 
hension. A sound is commonly represented by 
the pictorial image of an object, of which the 
name in the Egyptian language begins with the 
sound to be represented, Thus, to illustrate 
8 



114 A N C IE NT E G YPT : 

this principle, suppose it to be applied to the 
writing of the English language : the letter and 
sound A might be represented by the picture of 
an archer ; B, of a bird ; C, of a cow ; D, of a 
donkey, and so on, in the manner of our illus- 
trated alphabet for children. In this way. in 
the Egyptian language, the word for an eagle 
being aJchom, the picture of an eagle stands for 
the letter A ; the picture of a lion for the letter 
L, labo being a lion in Egyptian ; an open hand 
for the letter T, tot being a hand in Egyptian : 
and so on. As the names of many objects 
would begin with the sound A, the figures of 
several objects are used to express the same 
sound, and these signs are called homophones— 
that is, words or signs expressing the same 
sounds. Thus, in Egyptian, alee is the name of 
a reed, and the figure of a reed and the figure 
of an eagle are homophones, both of them signs 
of the letter or sound A. The discoveries of 
Lepsius show that this initial principle in the 
formation of the Egyptian alphabet is not so 
extensively applied as it was at first supposed, 
and that the homophones, or signs expressing 
the same sounds, are in the alphabet not very 
numerous, not more on an average than two or 
three signs for every sound. The use of these 
homophones was a great convenience in monu- 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 115 

mental writing. Sometimes in their inscriptions 
the writer needed a horizontal, sometimes a 
perpendicular sign. Now and then a long 
figure would fit with advantage, and at other 
times a broad one, and from the collection of 
signs commonly employed it was easy to select 
those which would be likely to give beauty and 
effect to the various grouping of their words. 

There is another class of signs belonging to 
the hieroglyphic writing of too much importance 
to be omitted, known as the determinatives. 
They are used to indicate the method in which 
the writing which they accompany is to be read. 
Thus, the characters which represent sounds are 
often followed by a picture of the object which 
they represent ; or if the writing represents an 
action, by a picture of the action, or of some- 
thing connected with it. The idea is thus given 
in picture, and then again in characters denoting 
sound. A certain symbol denotes water, and 
accompanies verbs signifying all the various states 
of liquids and the uses made of them, as freez- 
ing, boiling, washing, swimming, etc. The syca- 
more-tree is the determinative sign of all trees, 
and the disk of the sun of all things in connec- 
tion with light. 

With regard to numeration, the reader will 
perceive that our own system of signs for num- 



116 ANCIENT EGYPT*. 

bers is ideographic, and not phonetic ; the 
figures in use amongst us being signs, not of 
the names, but of the thing signified. In this 
respect our mode resembles the Egyptian. 
Their mode was in harmony with all their lan- 
guage. Cardinal numbers were expressed 
amongst them by the representation of the ob- 
ject itself, or by giving the object and following 
it by marks according to the number to be indi- 
cated, or by writing the number phonetically. 
Decimals and fractions were understood amongst 
them, as is manifest by the papyri, which con- 
tain long inventories and accounts kept by the 
priests. Ordinary dates were reckoned by the 
reign of the ruling Pharaoh, and for longer 
periods they observed astronomical cycles. The 
year was first divided into lunar months, but 
perceiving afterwards the inadequacy of this 
reckoning, they adopted twelve solar months 
of thirty days each, making a year of three 
hundred and sixty days. Still observing a de- 
ficiency, five additional days were added to the 
last month, and subsequently, one day besides in 
every fourth year, after the fashion of our leap- 
year. 

The foregoing statements will, it is hoped, 
be sufficient for our present purpose, which is 
merely to give a short, but clear indication of the 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 11 7 

nature of the Egyptian writing by hieroglyphics ; 
a full development of the system can only be 
attained by a long and elaborate treatise. 



CHAPTER V. 

RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 

Sufficient time elapsed from the flood to the 
dispersion of the nations, to allow of the devel- 
opment of idolatry in the race of man, the ima- 
gination of whose heart was evil from his youth. 
Faber and others have traced, with great proba- 
bility, the origin of this idolatry to a perversion 
of the doctrine of a great Deliverer, who w T as to 
come as the Son of God, and yet also to be the 
seed of the woman. Mankind, through the 
perverted ingenuity of the human heart, in 
changing the highest good into some form of 
evil, passed from the adoration of the one su- 
preme and eternal Jehovah into the foolish super- 
stitions of hero worship. The next stage was 
that of Sabianism, the worship of the heavenly 
bodies, into w T hich the souls of the departed 
were supposed to have passed, and which were 
looked upon as symbols of their presence and 
influence. The attempt to erect the tower of 
Babel was associated, either at its commence- 



118 ANCIENT EGYPT : 

merit or in the course of its progress, with idol- 
atrous worship. Ambition and the idea of self- 
preservation may have chiefly prompted the 
daring exploit, to build a tower the top of which 
should reach to heaven, as indicated in the ex- 
pressions, " Let us make us a name, lest we be 
scattered abroad," &c, Gen. xi, 4 ; but the pride 
which separated man from the true God soon 
led him to worship the creature rather than the 
Creator, and the Tower of Babel became a tem- 
ple in honor of the sun. The first colonists of 
the land of the Nile were those who, after the 
dispersion of the nations, wandered westward 
from the plain of Shinar ; and they brought with 
them an idolatry half formed, but in course of 
rapid development, retaining some of the truths 
God had given to their fathers, but making them 
increasingly vain by their traditions. The ac- 
count of the rise of idolatrous notions and prac- 
tices, as it is given by the apostle Paul to the 
Romans, in the latter part of the first chapter, 
is historically shown to be correct ; and to the 
plains of Assyria is to be traced the commence- 
ment of the degrading and polluting rites of 
heathen idolatry. Man having withdrawn him- 
self from the love and adoration of the one God, 
began, in all manner of perplexity and confusion, 
to deify his attributes and the laws of nature, 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 119 

which are only the expressions of his mind. 
Some of the noblest of the Creator's works — the 
sun, the moon, and the stars — took the place of 
his glorious and perfect Self, and received the 
homage of his intelligent creatures. By some 
nations the worship of these heavenly bodies 
became combined with that of their representa- 
tives on the earth : and idols, having once come 
into use, gradually ceased to be symbolical, and 
though of man's own formation, received the 
undivided reverence of the multitude. The 
plains of Asia are to be regarded as the birth- 
place of the language, and also of the religion 
of Ancient Egypt. 

That religion remained the same in substance 
from the commencement of the history of Egypt 
till the introduction of Christianity into the 
country, and the abandonment of the hierogly- 
phic alphabet. The oldest kings of Egypt were 
both kings and priests, and the union of Upper 
and Lower Egypt under the same monarch, 
united together the religions of two classes of 
settlers, which, although similar, and the offshoots 
of the same stock, do not appear to have been 
identical. In the age of Abraham, the idolatry 
of Egypt was fully developed, and the same 
forms continued in use till the introduction of 
Christianity. 



120 a:; uie.n t eg ypx : 

Herodotus tells us of three orders of gods as 
worshiped among the Egyptians, and Bunsen 
has taken pains clearly to distinguish and enu- 
merate eight gods of the first order. The first 
was Ammon of Thebes ; the second, Khem of 
Panopolis , the third, Mut, goddess of Buto, in 
the Delta; the fourth, Kneph, or Chnubis, the 
ram -headed god of Upper Egypt ; the fifth was 
his consort, Sate ; the sixth, Phtah, the creator, 
the god of Memphis ; the seventh, Keith, god- 
dess of Sais ; and the eighth, Ra, god of Helio- 
polis. These were local deities, or rather the 
various forms under which the inhabitants of 
different cities and neighborhoods worshiped 
professedly the Supreme Being. Originally, 
it is probable that, for the more cultivated 
minds, the images of these deities denoted the 
First Cause of all things — the one and invisible 
God ; but this meaning of them soon became 
less and less understood, and was always restricted 
to a very small minority of their worshipers, 
until the religion became a complete and foul 
idolatry. 

Twelve gods are enumerated by Bunsen, of 
the second order, the descendants of those of 
the first. These again gave birth to those of 
the third, amongst whom the most famous are 
Osiris and Isis. According to Herodotus, they 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 121 

are the only gods worshiped throughout the 
whole of Egypt, and with them, in union with 
Horus, is comprised the whole system of Egyp- 
tian mythology. It is with Osiris and his reign 
that the supernatural and imaginary merges into 
the historical. The more modern legends re- 
specting him are to be considered as the shadows 
of events which took place in the early dawn of 
Egyptian history, and have by some indeed been 
interpreted to refer to so late a period as that of 
the invasion of the shepherd race. 

The Egyptian theology — if their system of 
doctrine is worthy of such a name — was a kind 
of pantheism. God was believed to be originally 
without form or name, unchangeable and infinite, 
and to be worshiped in adoring silence. Every- 
thing in the universe was supposed to live by 
virtue of the life of God. This first great and 
adorable Being, pervading all space and filling all 
things, was before the first order of gods. He 
gave birth to them, and the son of this god is 
the creator of the world. In this theology, 
mingled with many fables and additions of man's 
imagination, there is the truth of the unity of 
the Godhead, and also. obscure indications of the 
truth conveyed to us by the apostle John, in the 
language concerning the Son of God, "All things 
were made by him ; and without him was not 



122 ANCIENT EGYI'T : 

anything made that was made." Remnants also 
of another great doctrine of the Christian reve- 
lation, which was known to patriarchs and pro- 
phets at the beginning of the world, appear in the 
Egyptian triads. " The primary form of the 
Egyptian divinities/' according to Champollion, 
"is a triad, consisting of the father, the mother, 
and the infant son. This triad passes through 
a great many intermediate triads, until it reaches 
the earth, where, under the form of Osiris, Isis, 
and Horus, it becomes incarnate. Horus, the 
lowest link, returns upwards, and assumes the 
title of Ammon, Isis is the mother, and their in- 
fant son is invested with the same attributes as 
the son in the first triad." In each of the pro- 
vinces ornomes of Egypt, the deity was worshiped 
under three forms, the second being in kind female, 
and the third the descendant of the other two. 
These facts, ascertained by impartial witnesses, 
have the appearance of perversions of the doc- 
trine of a threefold manifestation of the Godhead, 
as implied in the Old Testament Scriptures, and 
more fully revealed in the New. The resem- 
blance is not between the persons of the Godhead, 
but in the fact that the distinction is threefold, 
and that the idea of the son becoming incarnate 
is singularly prominent amidst the rubbish of 
Egyptian mythology. 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 123 

The sacred animals were of various kinds, and 
were the objects of different degrees of worship. 
Some were worshiped throughout all Egypt, and 
others only in particular districts. Persons were 
appointed, whose duty it was to have them in 
constant charge and to feed them, and the office 
was esteemed an honorable one. Those who 
held it formed processions and journeys through 
the country, receiving gifts throughout their 
progress, in proportion to the esteem in which 
the animals they tended were held. The mode 
of treatment of these animals was the very height 
of folly. They were regarded as human beings, 
and all sorts of luxuries were appropriated at 
great expense for their use. They lay down 
upon carpets, were anointed with the most pre- 
cious ointments, and even regaled with the 
choicest perfumes. When they died there was a 
general mourning and a magnificent funeral. 
The sacred animals were embalmed in a most 
careful and costly manner, and everything rela- 
ting to them was managed with the most lavish 
care and attention. A person who unintention- 
ally killed a cat would be exposed to the most 
imminent peril of his life. Notwithstanding all 
this, if anything went wrong in the state of pub- 
lic health, the priests blamed and sometimes 
chastised the sacred animals, holding them re- 



124 ANCIENT EGYPT: 

sponsible for the condition of affairs, and occa- 
sionally, if matters did not mend, proceeding so 
far as to put them to death. Animals of like 
kinds were generally buried by themselves alone, 
though in some cases the custom was departed 
from. It was most complimentary to convey the 
body of the animal to be buried to the district 
in which he was most worshiped. 

The ape was sacred to Thoth, the god of letters 
and of the moon. Four apes appear on the two 
sides of the obelisk of Luxor, as if adoring the 
deity to whom the obelisk was dedicated. Her- 
mopolis, the city of Thoth, was pleasant quarters 
for the apes of Egypt. The shrew mouse {my gale) 
was another favorite, and was worshiped at Butos, 
and the dog at the city of Cynopolis. The lat- 
ter animal is said to have lost rank, because when 
Cambyses slew and cast out the apis, the dog 
did not know, or did not care, that he or his 
flesh was a god, and made a meal of the sacred 
animal. Burying-places were provided for dogs, 
and they were interred at the public expense. 
Wolves were sacred animals, and set the fashion 
in eating mutton ; and, judging from the mum- 
mies, foxes and jackals were in good repute. 
The people of Heracleopolis worshiped the ich- 
neumon, because it destroyed the crocodile by 
devouring its eggs, and, if Diodorus is to be 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 125 

believed, by jumping down the throat of the full- 
grown animal, and quietly eating its way out 
through the stomach again into the open air, to 
the serious inconvenience and destruction of the 
creature to whom the stomach belonged. If this 
last feat ever was performed in days of yore by 
the ichneumon, modern ichneumons are not so 
adventurous, and content themselves by destroy- 
ing crocodiles' eggs, and doing the state good 
service by killing rats. Few animals enjoyed so 
great an amount of worship as the cat. "Never," 
says Cicero, " did one hear of a cat being killed 
by an Egyptian." Bubastis was a famous 
place for their worship, and cat mummies are 
there very plentiful. During their lifetime they 
had plenty of bread sopped in milk, and fish from 
the Nile, and when they died they were buried 
in great state. A nobler animal — the lion — was 
worshiped at Leontopolis. It was the sign of 
strength, and a god and several goddesses bore 
the head of a lion. It was also a sign of the 
inundation of the Nile, because the river began 
to rise when the sun entered the constellation 
Leo. The fashion which still prevails, of having 
lions' heads at fountains and water spouts, may 
be traced back to the Egyptian practice. The 
hippopotamus was sacred to Mars, and was wor- 
shiped at Paphremis, 



126 ancient egypt: 

Of birds, the vulture was the bird sacred to 
Neith, and the hawk was one of the most com- 
mon signs of the deity. It was the especial sym- 
bol of the sun, and was worshiped at Heliopolis. 
Hawks, in Egypt, were of several kinds ; but 
the sacred bird had a peculiar mark under the 
eye. The ibis was one of the most important 
of the sacred birds, and was universally wor- 
shiped. It was useful in destroying serpents, 
and was sacred to Thoth, the moon. A distinct 
kind of ibis received divine honors, and Hermo- 
polis was the city where it was worshiped. At 
Thebes, at Memphis, and at Hermopolis, great 
heaps of mummies of it have been found. 

Among the reptiles, the crocodile enjoyed the 
highest honors, though its worship was confined 
to certain localities. It was the god of Ombos, 
in Upper Egypt, and of some few places in Low- 
er, though the Tentyrites and inhabitants of 
Apollinopolis chased, slew, and ate it. Its friends 
treated it as an emblem of the sun ; its enemies 
as of the evil being. The asp was sacred to 
ZsTeph, and a sign of royalty — hence it was called 
the basilisk : it was universally worshiped. It 
is the same serpent with which, in Modern Egypt, 
the conjurors perform their amusing tricks, and 
by which it is reported that Cleopatra accom- 
plished her death. They live in gardens, and 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 12*7 

eat frogs and mice. The common snake is by some 
considered to have been the sign of eternity, and to 
have been venerated with great honor. Others 
treated it with superstitious dread, as the emblem 
of evil, in accordance with the representation of 
the Old Testament concerning the origin of evil. 
Of fish, the most sacred were the oxyrinchus, 
the phagrus, and the lepidotus, which were con- 
nected with various superstitious notions, though 
they do not seem to have been the objects of 
religious worship. Amongst beetles, the scara- 
baeus was in Egyptian eyes the most sacred. It 
was symbolical of the sun, and was used in great 
abundance for necklaces, rings, and ornaments. 
In the vegetable world the tamarisk was a holy 
tree, from having been chosen to overshadow the 
tomb of Osiris ; the persea was sacred to Athor, 
and the sycamore to Netphe ; and there was a 
mystery about garlic and onions, which these 
vegetables have not preserved to modern times. 
Such is a rapid sketch of the principal symbols 
of this land of idols. Did we not know by cer- 
tain evidence that these things were worshiped 
amongst them, it would be incredible that the 
builders of the stupendous monuments in the 
Valley of Egypt could descend to such puerile 
and disgusting follies. The lesson is solemnly 
conveved to us, that no intellectual attainments 



128 ANCIENT EGYPT! 

or industrial progress will save a nation from the 
worst superstitions of idolatry, and that the only- 
guide and safeguard of a people, in the way 
of a permanent and noble civilization, is to be 
found in the presence among them of the word 
of Divine revelation. Men, it is evident, may 
build pyramids and worship beetles ; the exer- 
cise of the understanding by no means implies 
the renewal of the heart ; and it is only as the 
soul is directed in the love and service of its adora- 
ble Creator by the communication of his Spirit, 
and his own gracious messages of truth, that it can 
become truly pure and noble. " Blessed is the 
nation whose God is the Lord; and the people 
whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance." 

The religious festivals of the Egyptians were 
numerous and very imposing. One of them— the 
Procession of Shrines — is mentioned on the Ro- 
setta stone, and appears on the walls of many 
of their temples. The shrines were either open 
canopies, or an ark or sacred boat sometimes 
reminding the modern observer of the vessel 
built by Noah, and at other times of the ark of 
the covenant. They were carried by the priests 
by means of long staves passing through rings 
at the side, and a procession was formed of a 
large number of these shrines, sometimes accom- 
panied by a statue of the god or of the king. 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 120 

These shrines and statues were borne to the tem- 
ple, and there received in triumph, with sacrifi- 
ces, prayers, garlands, and all manner of festivi- 
ties. The dedication of a temple, in part or 
whole, and of offerings made to the gods, and 
the coronation of a king, were ceremonies of 
great importance. The sovereign, arrayed in his 
robes of state, was anointed with oil, the gods 
were represented as placing the crown upon his 
head, and giving him the sceptre, as laying their 
hands upon him, and presenting him with the 
symbols of a long and prosperous reign. After 
a successful campaign, the king and the whole 
army marched with great pomp to the temple to 
return thanks. He was met by the procession 
of the priests bringing incense ; a scribe rehearsed 
the glorious deeds of the war ; the monarch was 
introduced to the presence of the god, offered 
his sacrifices, and dedicated the spoils. Birth- 
days of the king were commemorated with due 
solemnity, and there were fixed annual festivals. 
That of the inundation was a remarkable one. 
It took place when the river began to rise, and 
on its due performance the measure of the inun- 
dation was supposed to depend. A ceremony 
was also observed at the end of the harvest, when 
the fruits of the field were gathered in, and the 
land had to be prepared for a second inundation. 



130 ANCIENT EGYPT: 

The legend of Osiris and Isis, comprising as it 
did an allegorical signification, gave rise to sev- 
eral festivals at different cities in Egypt by day 
and night, which were attended with everything 
that could gratify the voluptuous taste. Here 
began those famous mysteries, which afterwards 
spread into Greece, beneath which, some imagine, 
were concealed the elementary truths of reli- 
gion, but which, if ever they had anything good 
belonging to them, degenerated into useless 
ceremonies, having in connection with them phan- 
tasmagorial exhibitions. Circumcision was prac- 
tised in Egypt, as testified by the monuments, 
from early times. It was not enforced by law 
so much as observed by prevalent custom. 

Of the separate existence of the soul, and of a 
future life, the Egyptians had a distinct belief, 
the remains of an early and patriarchal revelation. 
After death the soul of the deceased was sup- 
posed to pass through various adventures, and 
to be subject to trial and discipline, the scenes 
of which are described in papyri manuscripts, 
which have been found deposited in the tombs. 
After passing through many introductory exami- 
nations, it reaches the great hall of judgment, 
and appears in the presence of Osiris, the su- 
preme judge. To him the soul is represented 
as addressing a supplication, declaring its inno- 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 131 

cence, and by Osiris it is then introduced to the 
forty-two avengers, who are the ministers of 
punishment of certain vices. The soul says to 
the first of these, " thou that hast long legs, 
(art swift to pursue,) I have not sinned." To 
the second, " thou that dost try with fire, I 
have not been gluttonous." To the fourth, u O 
thou that devourest tranquillity, (that is, with 
whom there is no peace,) I have not stolen." To 
the fifth, " thou that smitest the heart, I have 
done no murder." To the sixth, " thou with 
the two lions, (heads,) I have not falsified mea- 
sures." To the seventh, "0 thou that hast 
piercing eyes, I have not acted the hypocrite." 
To the ninth, " thou that dost make limbs 
tremble, I have not lied." To the sixteenth, 
" thou that dost delight in blood, I have not 
slain the cattle of the gods." To the twenty- 
second, " O thou that dost consume creation I 
have not been drunken." 

The declaration of the apostle regarding the 
ancient world was perfectly true : " Knowing the 
judgment of God, that they which commit such 
things are worthy of death." There are two 
aspects in which this Egyptian idea of the judg- 
ment to come is distinct from that "which is pre- 
sented to us in the Christian Scriptures. The 
argument of the Epistle to the Romans is to es- 



132 ANCIENT .EGYPT! 

tablish the guilt of the human race, and to pre- 
clude the possibility of justification on the ground 
of absolute right, or by the deeds of the law, 
such as the Egyptian ordeal supposes ; and when 
in our Lord's description of the proceedings of 
the judgment, the righteous are welcomed by 
him, and actions are ascribed to them in which 
they have manifested their faith and love, they 
are represented as renouncing the merit of all 
such actions : " Lord," they answer, " when saw 
we thee a hungered, and fed thee ? or thirsty, 
and grave thee drink ? when saw we thee a stran- 
ger, and took thee in ? or naked, and clothed thee ? 
or when saw we thee in prison, and came unto 
thee ?" In the Egyptian judgment-scene, the 
trial is, throughout, that of works, and the plea 
of the prisoner is that of not guilty ; but in the 
Christian revelation, salvation is of the free grace 
of the Lawgiver, and the sinner who is pardoned 
and accepted is most conscious of his transgres- 
sion, and most willing to confess, " JNot unto us, 
not unto us, but unto thy name be all the glory.'* 
In the representation also of the last judgment, 
as exhibited in the Egyptian picture, the lawgiver 
or judge appears not as the maintainer of just 
and beneficent law, but as the minister of ven- 
geance, and the names and titles which the ex- 
amining genii receive are in correspondence with 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. . 133 

this sentiment. Christianity, on the other hand, 
reveals to us a God who is indeed the Lawgiver, 
and whose commandments are connected with 
the most fearful sanctions, but who delighteth in 
mere)', and who will judge the world in righteous- 
ness by that Man in whom are manifested the 
exceeding riches of his grace. 

In the Egyptian representation, the forty-two 
avengers proceed to examine, in the presence of 
Osiris, the conduct of the soul while on earth. 
Those who successfully sustain the ordeal arise 
to heaven, navigate the celestial Xile in the bark 
of the sun, and are landed in the habitations of 
the blessed. Here they reap the corn and gath- 
er the fruits of paradise, under the eye and smile 
of the lord of joy in the heart, — that is, the sun, — 
who exhorts them thus : " Take your sickles, reap 
your grain, carry it into your dwellings, that ye 
may be glad therewith, and present it as a pure 
offering unto God." There also they bathe in 
the pure river of the water of life that flows past 
their habitation. Over them is inscribed, " They 
have found favor in the eyes of the great God ; 
they inhabit the mansions of glory, where they 
enjoy the life of heaven ; the bodies which they 
have abandoned shall repose forever in their 
tombs, while they rejoice in the presence of the 
supreme God." 



134 A N C IE N X EGYPT! 

The guilty spirits, on the other hand, are driv- 
en back by baboons to the earth, and their souls 
pass into the bodies of the animals to whose na- 
ture their sin has assimilated them. After three 
transmigrations, if the soul remained polluted, it 
is cast into the region of punishment symbolized 
by the twelve hours of the night. This region 
is divided into twenty-four zones, and over each 
zone is appointed an executioner, to superintend 
the fearful torments. It is declared concerning 
the inhabitants of these fearful abodes, " These 
souls are at enmity with our god, and do not see 
the rays which issue from his disk ; they are no 
longer permitted to live in the terrestrial world, 
neither do they hear the voice of God when he 
traverses their zone." 

So long as the body remained undissolved, it 
was considered by the Egyptians that the soul 
was still in connection with it, but on its disso- 
lution it passed into the body of some other 
animal. Extraordinary pains were, therefore, 
taken to preserve the body, that in case of resur- 
rection the soul might return to it again, and 
meanwhile might not quickly associate itself with 
some other body. This is the theoretical origin 
of the process of embalming, for which the 
Egyptians were so famous. It was a practice 
not confined to the Egyptians, but one in use 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 135 

among the Persians, the Jews, the Arabians, and 
the Ethiopians. Amongst the Egyptians the 
art was brought to the greatest perfection. He- 
rodotus and Diodorus Siculus both give accounts 
of the process as they witnessed it, or received 
particulars of it in the age in which they wrote. 
Certain individuals, according to Herodotus, 
practised the art, and when a body was to be 
embalmed, they submitted a model of the various 
modes in which the embalment might be done. 
The price and mode being fully agreed upon, the 
relatives depart, and the body is left to the em- 
balmers. They proceed to excavate the head 
and body, and fill the cavities with aromatic 
drugs and perfumes, then sew them up again, 
and steep the body in natron for seventy days. 
It is then taken out, washed and wrapped in 
bandages cut out of cotton cloth, and smeared 
over with gum. It is then given back to the 
relatives, who procure a wooden case in the 
shape of a man, and place the body in it. This 
is a description of the most costly process ; the 
other two modes require less care, and were 
practised for persons of inferior rank. The first 
method cost a talent of silver, which is equal to 
£225 English money ; the second method twenty 
minae, or £15 ; and the third a much smaller 
sum. In many cases the intestines were thrown 



136 ANCIENT EGYPT.* 

into the Nile, and in others preserved in vases, 
or replaced within the bod} r . The cuticle was 
removed, that the hodj might receive the full 
effect of the ablutions and soakings in the pre- 
paration made for it. It appears likely, from 
the appearance of many mummies on examina- 
tion, that the body was exposed to a very strong 
heat, so that the aromatic and resinous substances 
penetrated into the structure of the bones. After 
the embalming, and before the bandages, the 
body was often gilded in part or whole, and in 
cases of extreme costliness wrapped in sheets 
of gold. In the mummies the body is always 
extended and the head erect, the only difference 
of position taking place in the disposition of the 
arms, which are sometimes found with their 
palms on their thighs, or are brought forward 
in contact with each other, or placed across the 
breast, or have one arm extended along the body, 
and the other carried across the chest. 

When the mummies were kept in the house, 
they were put in movable boxes, like closets, 
with folding doors, and offerings of various kinds 
were made to them by the different members of 
the family. Sometimes they were even intro- 
duced at table, or were kept in the house till the 
death of other inmates, or until the tomb was 
built ready for their reception. Within the 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 137 

tombs small tables were often placed, on which 
offerings were laid of cakes, ducks, and other 
things, according to the inclination of the per- 
son offering. It was these offerings to the dead 
which were strictly prohibited by the law of 
Moses. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 

Like most eastern nations, the Egyptians were 
divided into separate classes or castes. The 
principle of caste consists in the fact, that pe- 
culiar occupations descend from father to son, 
and that the member of one family is not per- 
mitted to interfere with the trade or employment 
of another. Herodotus mentions seven tribes or 
castes in Egypt — the priesthood, the soldiery, 
herdsmen, swineherds, shopkeepers, interpreters, 
and boatmen. Diodorus gives in one place three 
classes, and in another five, as prevailing among 
the people of Egypt ; while Strabo fixes the 
number at three, and Plato at six. The appa- 
rent contrariety of statement in these authors 
can only be explained by supposing subdivision 
of the leading classes ; and Sir G. Wilkinson ar- 



138 ANCIENT EGYPT: 

ranges them under four comprehensive divi- 
sions — the priests ; the soldiers and peasants, or 
agriculturists ; the townsmen ; and the common 
people. In India, four castes prevail — the Brah- 
mins, or sacred order, the Chehterre, or soldiers 
and rulers, the Bice Vaissya, or husbandmen 
and merchants, and the Sooders-Sudras, or la- 
borers and mechanics. Megasthenes, a Greek 
historian about three hundred years before 
Christ, in a portion of his writings preserved by 
Strabo, gives a different account of the Indian 
castes, arranging them in seven classes. There 
is a general analogy between the castes of India 
and those of Egypt, and in the two countries 
the principle appears to have been rigidly and 
scrupulously maintained. 

The nobles of Egypt were always of the first 
two classes — either the priestly or the military ; 
and when the king was chosen out of the mili- 
tary class, it was necessary that he should be 
initiated into the priesthood, and taught the 
learning which the priests peculiarly professed 
to retain and cultivate amongst them. Among 
the Egyptians, the office and person of the king 
were invested with peculiar honors. He was 
chief of the religion and of the state ; he regu- 
lated the sacrifices, and on extraordinary occa- 
sions officiated as high-priest. He proclaimed 



IIS IfOHUMJ&NTS AND HISTORY. 139 

peace and war, and commanded the armies in 
the field. The monarchy was constitutionally 
hereditary, though it was disturbed by usurpa- 
tion on the part of powerful chieftains ; and in 
the event of a failure in the lawful heir, the suc- 
cession was determined by nearness of kin or 
marriage. The kings were subject to the con- 
trol of the laws, which were framed for the 
good of the community. The wisest and most 
illustrious of the priests formed his privy coun- 
cil, and they are the persons mentioned in the 
book of Genesis as the elders of Pharaoh's 
house, with whom he consulted before admitting 
Joseph to the high station of ruler over the na- 
tion of Egypt. The highest respect was paid 
to the monarch and to his proclamations, and he 
was held to be the representative of the gods 
upon the earth. The quantity of food the king 
ate, and of wine which he drank, was regulated 
with the greatest care and nicety. He was held 
to be the property of the nation, and the pre- 
servation of his bodily and mental health was 
considered most important to the welfare of the 
community. Xo one of inferior rank was suf- 
fered to be about his person, but only those who 
belonged to the first families of the state. A time 
was fixed for the transaction of all business, and 
system and punctuality were strictly observed, 



140 ANCIENT EGYPT: 

Early in the morning, letters were opened ; then 
followed ablutions, the investiture of official robes, 
and the offering of the sacrifices in the temple. 
The high-priest, in the presence of the king and 
the people, offered prayers for the monarch, and 
enumerated his virtues, reviewing the general 
conduct of kings, and the faults into which they 
were led through ignorance or the evil counsel 
of their advisers. Then the king examined the 
entrails of the sacrifice, and extracts were read 
by the scribe from the writings which recorded 
the deeds and sayings of their great men. In 
the exercise of judgment and the distribution 
of punishments, e\eYj possible care was taken 
to prevent any rash or thoughtless act on the 
part of the king, and to set before him the sim- 
ple claims of truth and duty. 

On the death of a king, a general mourning 
throughout the land occurred for seventy-two 
days, as we find the Egyptians in the book of 
Genesis are recorded to have mourned for Jacob 
threescore and ten days. Violent demonstra- 
tions of grief ensued, a general suspension of 
all business, and the closing of the temples. On 
the last day, the body was placed in state at the 
entrance of the tomb, and an account was given 
of the actions and virtues of the departed. Any 
one present might on this occasion come forth 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 141 

with an accusation against the deceased, and if 
it were proved to be just, the body would be 
denied the ceremony of interment. 

Next to the king, the priests were the most 
important persons in the state, and from their 
ranks were chosen the ministers, the judges, 
and the officers of the kingdom. They pos- 
sessed great knowledge of history and astrono- 
my, and were supposed to be able to foretell 
future events. They were divided into numer- 
ous grades, according to the nature of their 
employments, and the deities at whose altars 
they rendered service. Herodotus states that 
women were not eligible to the priesthood : but 
this can refer only to the supreme office ; for we 
find from the Rosetta stone and other evidence, 
that there were different orders of priestesses, 
and that the queens and ladies of the noblest 
families held offices and performed services in 
connection with their religious worship. The 
priests enjoyed valuable privileges, were exempt 
from taxation, and had one of the three portions 
into which the land of Egypt was divided. 
When Pharaoh, according to the advice of Jo- 
seph, took all the land of Egypt for corn, the 
priests made no sacrifice of their landed pro- 
perty, having a provision direct from the king, 
and did not pay the rent of the fifth part of 



142 ancient egypt: 

their produce. Great distinction in rank existed 
amongst them, and one of the principal grades 
of the priests was the prophets. They were 
learned in the religion, laws, and worship of the 
kingdom, presided over the temple, and had the 
•management of the sacred revenues. In pro- 
cessions they carried the sacred vases, and were 
consulted in common with the chief priests on 
all matters relating to religion. 

To the priests was intrusted the knowledge of 
the mysteries — an honor which gave them no lit- 
tle ascendency over the minds of the common 
people. These mysteries consisted of the greater 
and the less, no one being admitted to the know- 
ledge of the higher class who had not previously 
become acquainted with those of the lower. 
Care was taken that the persons admitted to 
these secrets should be virtuous and worthy, and 
the privilege was held in the highest estimation. 
In earlier times, priests only were allowed ini- 
tiation, but in subsequent years some Greeks 
having conformed to the rules, became acquainted 
with the lesser mysteries. 

In education, the children were taught writ- 
ing, arithmetic, and geometry ; and for the last 
two branches of knowledge there was abundant 
need, in the changes wrought every season by 
the inundation, bringing with it differences of 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 143 

opinion as to the boundaries of property. In 
the higher or greater mysteries, the priests pos- 
sessed knowledge of the Supreme Being, and 
of his infinite perfections ; such knowledge was 
scrupulously restricted to themselves, and its 
promulgation to the common people absolutely* 
prohibited, who were sunk in the debasement of 
polytheism — having gods many and lords many. 
The priests were remarkable for simplicity and 
abstinence in their diet and mode of living. 
Their food was plain, and the quantity very 
moderate, and for themselves and their sacred 
animals they cherished a dread of becoming 
corpulent. Swine's flesh and fish from the sea 
and from the Nile were forbidden, and they had 
a great hatred of beans. Lentils, peas, garlick, 
leeks, and onions, were held to be unsuitable 
diet for priests ; though onions, gourds, grapes, 
figs, wine, beef, goose, along with the head of 
the victim sacrificed, were presented as offerings 
to the gods. The priests bathed twice a day 
and twice in the night, occasionally also washing 
themselves in water of which the ibis had tasted, 
and which was thought more pure on that ac- 
count. Every third day they shaved the head 
and the whole body, besides" some extraordinary 
and more prolonged purifications on grand occa- 
sions. 



14-4 ANCIENT EGYPT : 

The dress of the priests was simple, but the 
robes of office grand, each rank of the priest- 
hood having its peculiar costume. The high- 
priest wore a leopard skin, which the king ap- 
peared in when performing the duties of the 
^priesthood. No wool or hair was used in their 
dresses, but they were made of linen ; and their 
persons, according to their rank, were orna- 
mented with garlands, necklaces, and bracelets. 
A woolen cloak was allowed to be worn over 
their inner linen garments, and occasionally the 
innovation was practised of a cotten dress. 
Their sandals were of the papyrus and palm 
leaves, and they slept either on a skin stretched 
upon the ground, or else on a piece of wicker- 
work, made of palm branches, over which the 
skin was spread. The head was supported by a 
half-cylinder of wood, as is seen in the pictures, 
and which served as a pillow. 

The soldiers were in caste next to the priests, 
and one of the three portions of the land of 
Egypt was assigned to them. Each man pro- 
vided himself with his own arms, and was to be 
in readiness to serve when called upon. No 
soldier could be cast into prison for debt, and 
each, whether on duty or not, had his portion 
of land. The whole military force, according 
to Herodotus, consisted of four hundred and 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 145 

ten thousand men, divided into two bodies — the 
Calasiries and the Hermotybies. One thousand 
from each of these were selected as royal guards, 
and each soldier had his ration of bread, beef, 
and wine. When not engaged in service, the 
soldiers were employed on their farms, and were 
on no account permitted to pursue mechanical 
employments — these being considered unworthy. 
The troops were principally stationed in Lower 
Egypt, in order to be ready to protect the fron- 
tier most exposed. Mercenary troops were em- 
ployed by the Egyptians from the nations who 
were in alliance with them, or whom they had 
conquered. These had no land, but received 
regular pay. The strength of the army greatly- 
depended on the number and skill of its archers, 
who fought either on foot or in chariots. Scarcely 
any representations of Egyptian cavalry are 
found on the monuments — a fact which seems to 
intimate that the Egyptians did not ride on horse- 
back when in combat with their enemies till a 
comparatively late period of their history. Fre- 
quent mention, however, occurs in the Bible of 
the horsemen of Egypt, as accompanying Joseph, 
pursuing the Israelites, and being overthrown in 
the Red Sea. 

The infantry of Egypt was divided into regi- 
ments, arranged according to the nature of their 
10 



146 ANCIENT EGYPT : 

armor. There were bowmen, spearmen, swords- 
men, clubmen, and slingers ; and captains of 
thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. Military- 
manoeuvring, phalanxes and standards, were well 
understood amongst them. The office of the 
standard-bearer was one of great importance, 
and the banner of the king was borne by the 
royal princes, or the sons of the chief nobility. 
A body of these surrounded and accompanied 
the king, and formed his staff, and the troops 
were summoned by the blast of the trumpet. 

The arms of the Egyptians were the bow, spear, 
javelin, sling, sword, dagger, knife, falchion, ax, 
battle-ax, pole-ax, club, and a curved stick. 
These were their offensive arms. Their defen- 
sive consisted of helmet, cuirass or coat of armor, 
and a shield. The shield was the most import- 
ant part of the defensive armor. It was round 
at the top and square at the bottom, made of 
wood or wicker-work, and usually covered with 
a thick bull's-hide. Occasionally shields were 
used of an enormous size, and bucklers, smaller 
and of various shapes. The bow was not unlike 
that in use in modern times, and was either 
straight, or, when unstrung, having a curve in 
the middle. Every bowman was provided with 
a large quiver and a case for the bow. 

The coat of armor was constructed of rows 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 147 

of metal plates, secured by pins of bronze. It 
had a collar, partially covering the neck, and 
sometimes it reached nearly to the knee. 

The chariot was built for only two persons, 
and was very rarely occupied by three. The 
attendants of the chariot ran before and behind, 
and were ready to take charge of the horses 
whenever the charioteer might dismount ; but on 
no account was a person of inferior rank per- 
mitted to ascend the chariot. 

The traveling car, or plaustrum, was drawn 
by oxen. The sides were closed in, and it was 
furnished with an umbrella, very much like the 
capacious gig-umbrella in use amongst us. 

The farmers or husbandmen farmed the land 
for the advantage of the proprietor, the poorer 
persons amongst them being engaged in the more 
arduous cultivation of it. Mostly they were ten- 
ants at will, though in the case of the wealthier 
farmers there are indications of arrangements 
similar to a lease. There were pleasure-grounds 
and flower-gardens attached to the houses of 
the rich, and gardeners to cultivate and take 
charge of them. Vineyards and orchards had 
to be dressed and pruned, and above all there 
was much employment in the necessary work of 
irrigation. Huntsmen also were active both in 
sport and earnest, pursuing and exterminating 



148 ANCIENT EGYPT : 

the wild animals of the country, destroying the 
hyaena, and securing the ostrich with its valuable 
plumes and eggs. The grandees of Egypt kept 
yachts for excursions on the Nile, and barges 
for purposes of conveyance and trade, and the 
service of the boatman was much in request. 
The steersman was an important functionary, and 
so were the marines and Egyptian admirals. 

The third grand class of the Egyptians compris- 
ed all who were engaged in trade, shopkeepers, 
builders, cabinet-makers, potters, public weighers, 
notaries, smiths of all kinds, and leather-cutters. 
No artisan was allowed to follow a trade to which 
he had not been brought up by his parents, and 
no trade had anything to do with politics. Every- 
thing was regulated by public law. It was the 
business of the public weigher to test the bar- 
gains which were struck in the market, to mea- 
sure out by weight the goods and also the 
money which was paid for them. A notary 
wrote down the commodity and the price paid 
for it and the document of the public officer 
served as the receipt. The money was in rings 
of gold and silver. The writing was mainly done 
by these scribes or notaries, who were very nu- 
merous. It was of three kinds ; the hieroglyphic, 
the hieratic, and the enchorial or demotic. The 
hieratic was that in use among the priests, the 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 149 

hieroglyphic the most ancient, and the enchorial 
the most common. We have already treated of 
these in a previous chapter. 

The fourth and lowest class of the Egyptians 
included those who kept oxen, sheep, goats, 
swine, and other animals ; poulterers, fowlers, 
fishermen, laborers, servants, and all below them. 
The keeping of cattle was held to be an ignoble 
employment — every shepherd, as we read in 
Genesis, being an abomination to the Egyptians. 
This hatred of the shepherds was not wholly 
derived from the nature of their employment, 
but from historical and political associations, a 
pastoral race of enemies having for some years 
held possession of Egypt, and oppressed its in- 
habitants. Pigs were especially disliked in Egypt, 
and those who kept them were not permitted to 
enter a temple. Eggs were hatched by artificial 
processes, and the supply of all kinds of food 
was abundant. The sheep were shorn twice 
every year, and gave birth as often. Geese were 
plentiful, tame and wild, and were eaten fresh, 
salt, and potted ; and the Egyptian nobles prided 
themselves on their herds of young antelopes. 

Law was administered with rigid equity and 
uniformity. Thebes, Memphis, and Heliopolis, 
each furnished ten of their worthiest and wisest 
inhabitants, who together constituted a bench of 



150 ANCIENT EGYPT; 

judges. The thirty selected from among them 
their president or chief justice, and the city to 
which he belonged returned another in his stead, 
so that the whole number was thirty-one. They 
were paid by the king, and justice was adminis- 
tered gratuitously. When a case was submitted 
for trial, the judge wore a golden chain round 
his neck, to which was suspended a figure of the 
goddess Thmei, the goddess of truth and justice. 
The figure was ornamented with precious stones, 
and in the name of the goddess is to be found, it 
is supposed, the derivation, from a common ori- 
gin, of the Hebrew Thummim, the badge worn 
by the high-priest among the Jews. The god- 
dess was represented in her image as having her 
eyes closed, intimating the impossibility of the 
judges showing favor, or judging according to 
the outward appearance. The case of the plain- 
tiff, and the facts relating to it, were given in 
writing, and so also was the answer of the de- 
fendant. An objection was felt to eloquence and 
special pleading, as tending to obscure and per- 
vert the truth, and pleas and counterpleas were, 
therefore, all conducted by means of written 
documents. In pronouncing judgment, the judge 
touched the party whom he approved with the 
image of truth. 

The laws were recorded in eight books, which 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 151 

were placed beside the judge during the trial. 
They were very ancient and highly esteemed, and 
were considered popularly to have been com- 
municated by the gods, though the names of 
early monarchs who had contributed to their 
compilation were held in extraordinary respect. 
At certain periods, an enrolment took place of 
the inhabitants of the various towns and provin- 
ces, in the presence of the local authorities ; and 
descriptions of the person, similar to those of 
continental passports in modern times, were not 
unknoAvn amongst them. The punishments 
which were in use were the bastinado, imprison- 
ment, mutilation for some offences, and death by 
hanging. Willful murder was visited with capi- 
tal punishment, even in the case of a slave. 

The profession of thief was an acknowledged 
and registered employment, and he who prac- 
tised it sent in his name to the leader, and from 
time to time gave an account of his depredations. 
On giving an accurate description of the stolen 
property, and the time when it was taken, the 
owner had it returned, with the loss of one-fourth 
of the value. The chief of the thieves was a 
gentleman of respectability, recognized by, and 
probably in the pay of, the government. 

Great care was taken in the preparation and 
execution of deeds and contracts. Most minute 



152 ANCIENT EGYPT : 

enumeration was made of the details of a bargain ; 
the agreements were written, and received the 
signatures of many witnesses, the name of each 
person being appended, together with that of his 
father. 

It was customary throughout Egypt to marry 
only one wife, polygamy being perhaps in some 
instances allowed, but very rarely practiced. 
Women were employed in weaving, and in the 
use of the distaff, and were not secluded as among 
other oriental nations. Concubines were per- 
mitted in the persons of slaves, who were mostly 
domestic servants in attendance on the mistress 
of the house. 

Egyptian houses were sometimes of three or 
four stories in height, but far more usually of one 
or two. The material was brick, manufactured to 
a great extent by captives, under the superintend- 
ence of the government, and baked in the sun. 
Pictures of brick-making appear on the monu- 
ments, in which gangs of captives, under the di- 
rection of taskmasters, are seen engaged in the 
manufacture. A remarkable one is found at 
Thebes, in Upper Egypt, in which are represent- 
ed all the various processes of the manufacture ; 
digging the clay, fetching the water from a tank, 
mixing it, counting and carrying the bricks, and 
setting them in a wooden mold. Foreign cap- 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 153 

tives were employed in the manufacture ; but 
some authors have directly identified these brick- 
makers with the afflicted and toiling children of 
Israel. 

The better class of houses had their rooms 
arranged, either in a long passage to which there 
was access by an entrance court, or on the sides 
of an open area. The court was commonly 
paved with stone, having trees, and a tank or 
fountain in the centre. The court was sometimes 
common to several houses, while others of a su- 
perior class were embellished with a portico, 
consisting of columns or colossal statues. A line 
of trees was occasionally planted outside the 
front, the stems of which were surrounded with 
a wall, having square apertures to admit the air. 
In the better class of houses were a hall door 
and a servants' door. Corridors were frequently 
used, and arranged so as to look over the area. 
The houses varied in size and plan, but the 
streets were laid out with great regularity. Some 
houses had only store-rooms on the ground-floor, 
and a single chamber above, to which a flight 
of steps gave access from the court below. The 
doors were stained to imitate foreign woods, 
were secured by sliding bolts, and opened in- 
wards. The floors of the houses were of stone 
or cement, and the roofs, sometimes flat, made 



154 ANCIENT EGYPT*. 

of rafters of the date tree, or at other times 
vaulted of brick and stone. On the top of the 
house was a terrace, which served for rest and 
exercise. It was covered with a roof, supported 
by columns, and open to a refreshing current of 
air. When this terrace was wanting, the house 
was surmounted with a wind- conductor, or ven- 
tilator, to catch the prevailing north-west wind. 
Now and then the house had a tower, or parapet 
wall. The houses sometimes bore the name of 
the owner, and at other times designations similar 
to those in use in the present day. The ceilings 
were very handsomly painted in compartments, 
with a border. There were figures of the circle, 
the square, the diamond, and the scroll, with 
magnificent cornices and mouldings. 

The Egyptians understood the comfort and 
luxury of a country house, surrounded by a 
spacious and well-watered garden. They had 
ponds and lakes for ornament and irrigation, 
and they amused themselves by fishing. Their 
mansions in the country for their own residences 
resembled in size and magnificence their temples, 
and had attached to them fruit and flower gar- 
dens, farm-yards, stables, and granaries. The 
gardens were carefully watered by men bearing 
the yoke and buckets, or by means of water- 
skins, which were filled at the tank. Gardens, 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 155 

vineyards, and orchards of various shapes ap- 
pear on the monuments. Vines were grown in 
bushes, or trained into bowers or along columns. 
Bird-keepers were employed at certain seasons 
to keep off the birds, and had to make use of 
their voices and of a sling for that purpose. 
The grapes were gathered into wicker baskets, 
and, from some of the sculptures, it is thought 
that monkeys assisted in this business. When 
the grapes were gathered, the young kids were 
allowed to browse on the leaves and young 
shoots of the vines. The grapes were thrown 
into the wine-press, which, in its simplest form, 
was a bag, which was so squeezed by twisting, 
as to force out the juice. The same end was 
accomplished in presses of larger size by tread- 
ing. After fermentation, the juice was poured 
into earthenware jars, which, at a proper time, 
were covered up by a lid, and sealed down with 
some composition, and then removed to the 
wine-cellar. There they were placed upright 
against the wall. The prime wine of Egypt was 
that of Marcotes, a district of gravel, beyond 
the reach of the inundation. Besides a consid- 
erable consumption . of wine, in which at their 
feasts they were not infrequently guilty of ex- 
cess, beer was a favorite beverage of the peas- 
ants and the inhabitants of the corn districts. 



156 ANCIENT EGYPT: 

It was made from barley, and as they had no 
hops, the lupin and the skirret — the crummoch 
of Scotland — and the root of an Assyrian plant, 
were used instead. They had wines also made 
from fruits and herbs, in addition to the wine 
produced from the grape. 

Of all the fruit-trees, the palm was the most 
valuable. This tree will only grow where water 
is plentiful, and the soil on the banks of the 
Nile is very favorable to it. In the month of 
August the Egyptians partook of the fresh 
dates, while some were dried and preserved for 
use during the remaining months of the year. 
The entire palm-tree is one of the most valua- 
ble productions of the east. Its trunk makes 
excellent timber, its branches wicker-baskets and 
laths, its leaves form mats, and strong ropes are 
made from the fibre of the branches. Besides 
its fruit, it yields wine, brandy, and sugar. Next 
to it in value, and in frequency of occurrence, is 
the tree called the Theban palm, always growing 
in two branches. Its wood is harder than that 
of the palm, and it bears a large nut, which when 
ripe is exceedingly hard. The sycamore, the fig, 
the pomegranate, the olive, the peach, and the 
almond, are well-known trees which abounded 
in Egypt, 

In their social entertainments, everything 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 157 

amongst the Egyptians was arranged for the 
comfort and pleasure of their guests, who were 
regaled with every luxury. Dinner, as in the 
case of Joseph's brethren, (Gen. xliii, 16,) was 
served about noon ; the guests coming in chariots 
or palanquins, or on foot with parasols and 
umbrellas. Visitors of higher rank were attended 
by servants, who carried for their use any arti- 
cle they might be supposed to require during 
their stay. Such as arrived from a distance 
were provided with water for washing their feet 
and hands, and sometimes even with garments, 
as they might need them. Ewers and basins, 
some of which are of gold, appear in the repre- 
sentations. As the guests took their seats, they 
were anointed by a servant with oil for their 
head, and were ornamented with flowers, the 
lotus being principally used for such purposes. 
Wine was offered at the commencement of the 
entertainment to the ladies in a small vase, whence 
it was poured into a drinking-cup, but to the 
gentlemen in a goblet. Drinking-eups were 
made of gold, silver, glass, bronze, and porce- 
lain, and the bowl of wine was crowned with 
wreaths of flowers. A band of music was pro- 
vided, consisting of the harp, lyre, guitar, tam- 
bourine, double and single pipe, flute, and other 
instruments. The musicians either stood in the 



158 ANCIENT EGYPT! 

centre or at one side of the chamber, and were 
accompanied by dancers or merrymakers. The 
music of the Egyptians was of various kinds- 
some for festive and some for mournful occa- 
sions. For military music they had the trum- 
pet and the drum, and the study of music was 
practised with much earnestness and care among 
the priesthood, from an appreciation of its effects 
on the human mind, and for its employment in 
religious ceremonies. Musicians were male and 
female, and belonged sometimes to the class of 
the priesthood. 

Cabinet-making and carpenters 5 work of vari- 
ous kinds were in great demand, and the indi- 
viduals engaged in these trades were very im- 
portant persons in Egyptian society, and very 
numerous and respectable. The woods of various 
trees were used. Besides the date and dom, 
the sycamore, tamarisk, and acacia, were the 
trees principally employed. The sycamore was 
used for thick and large planks, the tamarisk for 
turning and smaller purposes, while the acacia 
forms the planks and masts of boats, and the 
handles of their warlike instruments. In the 
sculptures are many representations of the 
chairs, stools, ottomans, couches, tables, bed- 
steads, and mats, which were used in the apart- 
ments of Egyptian houses. In these articles of 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 159 

furniture, they veneered with ivory and rare 
woods, and painted and grained in imitation of 
various kinds. They had chairs to hold one or 
two persons. Some of these chairs are to be 
seen in the British Museum and in the Leyden 
Collection of Antiquities. They are about the 
same height as those found in modern drawing- 
rooms, and in figure not very unlike them. The 
legs were carved in imitation of those of the 
lion or the goat, and in many cases they were 
made without cross-bars. Square sofas, otto- 
mans, and stools of all sizes abounded, and 
chairs covered with leather, which folded up on 
the same principle as our camp-stools. The 
couches had no pillow, but a stool in the form 
of a curved piece of wood, supported by two 
upright pieces for the head, to which we already 
have alluded. These couches were used as bed- 
steads. The tables were round, square, or ob- 
long, some supported by a leg in the middle, 
carved in the figure of a man, some having three 
or four legs, and others solid sides. Bedsteads 
were made of wicker-work of palm branches, or 
of bronze or wood. 

Dancing was not practiced among the upper 
classes of the Egyptians, it being considered as 
an unworthy and luxurious employment. It 
was in fashion among the lower classes, but was 



160 ANCIENT EGYPT : 

restricted to professional performers, often de- 
generating into indecent and wanton buffoonery. 
It was observed with more propriety of beha- 
vior in their religious rites, and formed one of 
their modes of worship. 

The potters were a numerous class of persons. 
They kneaded the clay with their feet, and worked 
it on the wheel with their hands and fingers. 
The handles were fixed in afterwards, and the 
vessels were then left to dry, and carried in trays 
on men's shoulders to the oven. Great skill 
was manifested in the manufacture of the vases 
and dishes in use amongst them, the carving of 
those which were made of the precious metals 
being excellent, and the shapes beautifully 
chaste and elegant. They were made in gold, 
silver, bronze, porcelain, alabaster, glass, ivory, 
stone, bone, and for the poor in common earthen- 
ware, and were ornamented with figures of 
flowers, animals, and men. Bottles were of all 
shapes and sizes ; and boxes have been discovered 
for the toilet containing perfumes, which, after 
the lapse of thousands of years, give forth an 
exquisite odor. 

The food which was presented at entertain- 
ments, and served up on their dishes and in their 
vases, consisted of the flesh of an ox, kid, wild 
goat, gazelle, geese, ducks, widgeons, and quails. 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 161 

The cow was sacred, but the flesh of the ox, unless 
it had certain marks, was a principal article of 
food. The soil of Egypt produced abundance of 
all sorts of vegetables, and these were served up 
almost in endless succession. It will be remem- 
bered that the Israelites, when they left the 
country, sighed after the vegetables of the land. 
If onions were prohibited, it was to the priests 
only, lest the smell of their breath might be 
offensive to the sensitive gods. They were cer- 
tainly not despised or neglected by the common 
people. 

In slaughtering animals, the blood was re- 
ceived into a vessel, and retained for purposes 
of cookery — a practice which the Israelites were 
forbidden to imitate, the blood being reserved, 
by the enactment of God, as a type of that 
great atonement which, in the person of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, was in subsequent ages to be 
made for sin. A precise and orderly method 
was adopted of cutting up the carcass, both for 
their ordinary eating and for the purpose of 
sacrifice. The details of the process of cookery 
are exhibited on the monuments, and the ser- 
vants of the kitchen are to be seen busy at their 
separate departments of the work. Some are 
attending to the fire, some watch the meat, some 
pound the salt, and some superintend the pastry. 
11 



102 ANCIENT EGYPT : 

This was occasionally kneaded by the feet, mixed 
for the manufacture of rolls with caraway and 
other seeds, and carried on boards on a man's 
head to the oven. Some was mixed with fruit 
to form puddings and pies. Joints of meat 
were either boiled in caldrons over the hearth, 
or roasted over a fire of a peculiar construction, 
a servant working a fan, which acted as a bel- 
lows. Dinner was served up on the table with- 
out tray or cloth, and the table generally was 
round. The rich had bread made of wheat, the 
poor of barley and the flour of the sarghum or 
millet. The quests sat either on chairs and 

o 

stools, or else on the ground. They had no 
knives and forks, and only occasionally a spoon, 
so that they ate with their fingers, and with the 
right hand. Ladles and spoons remain to the 
present day, and are of ivory, bone, wood, and 
bronze. 

During or after the dinner, it was a custom 
among them to introduce an image of Osiris, in 
the form of a mummy, either erect or reclining, 
and to show it to the guests as a warning of 
mortality. Herodotus says, that as it was 
shown to the guests in rotation, the bearer ex- 
claimed, " Cast your eyes on this figure ; after 
death you yourself will resemble it; drink, then, 
and be happy " — a sentiment very similar to that 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 163 

of the rich man, who is spoken of by our Lord 
as saying, " Soul, take thy ease, eat, drink, and 
be merry ;" and still more corresponding to that 
alluded to by the apostle Paul as the dictate of 
an infidel sensualist, " Let us eat and drink, for 
to-morrow we die." Plutarch, in his account 
of this custom, does not set forth so prominently 
the encouragement which it gave to unbridled 
licentiousness ; but it is mournful to find the very 
considerations which give a solemnity and value 
to human life so entertained, as to encourage a 
sinful and profligate expenditure of it. Immi- 
nent danger and fearful judgments of God's 
hand, have not seldom been perverted by hard- 
ened and reckless spirits into fresh occasions for 
sin. The most revolting 1 and darino- crimes are 
sometimes committed in a season of pestilence 
and of extraordinary mortality. It is only in 
the gospel of Christ that this life is revealed as 
intimately connected with the life everlasting, 
and motives are presented which teach us to 
deny ungodliness and worldly lust, and to live 
soberly, righteously, and godly in this present 
world. To a Christian mind, the contemplation 
of mortality suggests a very different lesson 
from that which was presented to the ancient 
Egyptians; and the good man is exhorted to know 
the time, and that now it is high time to awake 



1(34 ANCIENT EGYPT: 

out of sleep, for salvation is nearer than when 
he believed. 

After dinner, feats of agility were exhibited 
for the entertainment of the guests, music and 
dancing were introduced, and the tricks of jug- 
glers. Games at odd and even, games with the 
fingers and at draughts, were practiced. The 
game at draughts was a favorite, and the king 
is depicted as playing at it with the inmates of 
his harem. There were other games, some of 
chance and some of skill, in considerable abun- 
dance in use among the Egyptians. The chil- 
dren had their toys, dolls, and wooden croco- 
diles, and they and the older people also enjoyed 
various kinds of games at ball. Wrestling, mock- 
fights, contests with single-stick, and the carry- 
ing of heavy weights, were favorite amusements. 
Animals also fought each other, and men some- 
times fought with animals. 

There was a class of persons who obtained 
their livelihood by the chase, but the pursuit of 
w T ild animals was a favorite diversion of all 
classes of the community. It took place in the 
desert to the east and west of the Nile, and in 
extensive grounds which were kept for the pur- 
pose. Dogs and nets were employed; and the 
bow and arrow, as the instruments of the chase ; 
and besides these the lion was trained bv them 



i#'Oe$ 'V'Ja " w 




EGYPTIAN SLINGER. 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 167 

to hunt like our dog, and is frequently so repre- 
sented on the sculptures. They hunted the 
gazelle, the wild goat, the onyx, the wild ox, the 
stag, the wild sheep, the hare, and porcupine, 
for their flesh ; the fox, jackall, wolf, hyaena, 
and leopard, for their skins ; and the ostrich for 
its feathers and eggs. Dogs, of which they had 
many varieties, were looked on with great vene- 
ration. Some were admitted into the house, and 
others were employed for the chase. Herds of 
cattle, flocks of sheep and goats abounded ; 
and pigs, though hated, were yet kept amongst 
them. There was an export trade in horses, in 
which Solomon was a purchaser, and asses were 
common. The camel, though it is mentioned in 
Scripture as belonging to Egypt, is not seen on 
the monuments. 

Fowling and fishing were prevalent amuse- 
ments. The birds were caught in nets or traps, 
and afterwards knocked down with a stick, or 
shot with an arrow. A fowling expedition was 
generally a pleasant social party, and proceeded 
in boats made of reeds to the thickets in the 
neighborhood of the Me at the time of its over- 
flow, passing quietly along among the rushes, 
and surprising the birds in their retreats. A cat 
accompanied the expedition, and was trained to 
do her part in seizing the birds. 



168 ANCIENT EGYPT \ 

Ponds for fish were kept with great care, in 
addition to the extensive reservoirs of the Nile* 
They used the net and the line in fishing, the 
latter baited with a ground-bait, and without a 
float. The most fashionable mode of fishing 
was with the bident, a spear with two barbed 
points, which they held in their hand as they 
glided over the surface of the water in their 
boat of papyrus. One of the principal kinds of 
hunting was the chase of the hippopotamus, an 
animal of huge bulk, valuable for its hide, of 
which they made shields, whips, javelins, and 
helmets. Its depredations were extensive in 
the fields of the farmers, and at certain seasons 
they turned out and attempted its destruction. ■ 
It was driven to the water rather than attacked 
on shore, was harpooned after the fashion of 
the whale-fishery, and when exhausted by the 
chase and by its wounds, nooses were thrown 
around its cumbrous body, and it became an easy 
prey. 

There are two varieties of crocodile in Egypt, 
distinguished by the number and position of the 
scales on the neck. Although much dreaded 
amongst those who have little acquaintance with 
its habits, the crocodile is very timid, and sel- 
dom will attack any person unless very close to 
the water. It does not exceed nineteen or twentv 



ITS MONUMENiS AM> HISTORY. 169 

feet in growth. Herodotus tells of the manner 
in which the ancient Egyptians attacked it. 
" They fasten a piece of pork to a hook, and 
throw it into the middle of the stream as a bait ; 
then standing near the water's edge they beat a 
young pig, and the crocodile is enticed to the 
spot by its cries, finds the bait on its way, swal- 
lows it, and is caught by the hook. They then 
pull it ashore, and the first thing to be done is 
to cover its eyes with mud, and then, being de- 
prived of sight, it is unable to offer any effectual 
resistance. " 

It is not only in the grandeur and massive- 
ness of their temples and palaces that the Egyp- 
tians astonish the modern traveler, but they have 
a claim scarcely less strong on our admiration 
for their excellence in some of the nicer and 
more elaborate and useful branches of art. In 
paintings executed in the reign of Osirtasen I., 
upwards of 3,500 years ago, we have represen- 
tations of the art of glass-blowing as it was then 
practiced. The form of the bottle, the use of 
the blow-pipe, and the green of the fused mate- 
rial, cannot be mistaken, and glass ornaments 
and bottles have been found in the tombs. The 
Egyptians imitated, with a skill not surpassed, 
if equaled by the moderns, the amethyst, the 
emerald, and other precious stones, and formed 



1/0 ancient egypt: 

necklaces of all the hues of the rainbow. Glass 
was used amongst them for bottles, vases, cups, 
ornaments, and even coffins, and they were fully 
acquainted with the art of glass-cutting. From 
them it is plain, as a matter of history, that the 
Israelites received instructions in the art of en- 
graving precious stones, and an export trade from 
Egypt was carried on for many years of vessels 
of glass and porcelain. 

The linen manufacture was also celebrated. 
Much linen was employed as an article of dress 
in their hot climate, and still more in the inter- 
ment of the dead, and for export to foreign na- 
tions. 

The representations of the looms of Egypt on 
the tombs of Thebes are very simple and rude, 
and we are constrained to suppose that either 
they were improved upon in subsequent years, 
or that with these imperfect instruments they 
wrought, with much care, time, and labor, the 
manufactured article which became so valuable 
and celebrated. Some of the mummy cloths 
which are preserved are of beautiful texture, and 
bespeak a high degree of excellence for those 
who manufactured them. The finest kind re- 
semble muslin, and are very thin and transparent. 
Some of them are fringed like silk shawls. 
Others have strong selvedges, with stripes of blue, 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 171 

the dye of which has been determined to be in- 
digo. One specimen is covered with hierogly- 
phics, drawn with exceeding fineness. Gold and 
silver wire was used at a very early date in 
Egypt in weaving and embroidery. A passage 
in Pliny demonstrates their acquaintance with 
chemical laws and preparations necessary for dye- 
ing. " The singular thing," he writes, " is, that 
though the bath contains only one color, several 
hues are imparted to the piece, these changes 
depending on the nature of the drug employed, 
nor can the color be afterwards washed off; and 
surely if the bath had many colors in it, they 
must have presented a confused appearance on 
the cloth." It is quite plain from this description, 
that before the dipping of the cloth it had been 
prepared, and it is only natural to infer hence 
that the Egyptians were acquainted with some 
of the facts and laws of modern chemistry. 

The papyrus, which has given us our modem 
name of paper, merits a brief description in a 
list of Egyptian manufactures and products. It 
grew in watery places, by the brooks and ponds 
of the Nile. It had large twisted roots and a 
triangular stem, fifteen or twenty feet in height : 
it is surmounted by a tuft of fine fibrous filaments, 
and these are again subdivided. The paper was 
obtained from the bark of the stem. This bark 



112 ANCIENT EGYPT 1 

consists of plates, which when unrolled formed 
sheets, the inside ones being the best. The right 
of growing the papyrus and trading in it was a 
monopoly of the government. It still grows at 
Cyane, near Syracuse, but no paper now man- 
ufactured from it is equal to the old Egyptian. 
It is not generally used in Egypt because of its 
exorbitant price, but pieces of broken pottery, 
of wood, stone, or leather, were substituted for 
it by the poor. The use of paper made from 
papyrus was generally superseded by parchment, 
and this again gave place to the modern, plenti- 
ful, and cheap article which is manufactured 
from cotton and linen rags. The sheets of pa- 
per made in Egypt were long and very narrow. 
Belzonihad a papyrus twenty-three feet in length, 
and one and a half in br e adth . Eolls of this papy- 
rus exist in an extraordinary state of preservation. 
Sometimes they are externally gilded, are found 
thrust into the breast or between the knees of 
the mummy, and occasionally are inclosed in 
wooden boxes or purses. Eighteen hundred 
papyri manuscripts were dug out of the ruins of 
Herculaneum alone, and are deposited in the 
Museum of Naples. 

For our knowledge of Egyptian leather, and 
the modes of manufacturing and cutting it, we 
are indebted to the representations on the monu- 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 173 

merits, and to the few actual specimens which re- 
main. These latter consist of straps across the 
bodies of mummies, some of which are beauti- 
fully embossed. Leather was employed for 
sandals, shoes, seats of chairs and sofas, bow-cases, 
and ornaments for the chariot. Bottles were made 
of skins, and shields were covered with leather. 
In one picture, a man is seen dipping the skins 
to soak in water before removing the hair, and in 
another, Egyptian curriers are engaged in cutting 
leather with a knife, in shape resembling the 
semicircular blade in use among modern curriers. 
Large quantities of skins were imported from 
foreign countries, and such things constituted no 
trifling item in the tribute presented from con- 
quered nations. In tanning, they used the pods 
of the Acacia Nilotica, the juice of the unripe 
fruit of which is still imported from Egypt to 
Europe for medicinal purposes. 

Boats were made of wood, or the lighter 
kinds of osiers and rushes ; the former for the 
transit of heavy goods, and the latter for plea- 
sure, or smaller and lighter merchandize. Some 
boats were propelled by oars, and others had 
masts and sails. A man stood at the head of 
the boat with a pole in his hand, to sound the 
depth of the water, to avoid the sand-banks in 
the river, which were changing their place at 



174 ANCIENT EGYPT*. 

every season because of the inundation. The 
larger boats had lofty and spacious cabins, and 
pleasure-boats were ornamented at the head and 
stern with the figure of a flower. The galleys, 
or ships of war, had a wooden bulwark for the 
defence of the rowers; archers were placed on 
the raised poop or forecastle, and a body of 
slingers in the tops. The sail was kept in action 
till they came near the enemy, when it was sud- 
denly reefed, the rowers strenuously plied their 
oars, and the steersman so guided the galley as 
to strike, if possible, the vessel of the enemy on 
the side, so as to sink it by the shock, or afford 
opportunity for boarding. The sails were richly 
painted, and ornamented with various devices, 
and the edges of them were furnished with a 
strong border. 

The Egyptians were thoroughly acquainted 
with the use of the precious metals, and the 
manner of working them. They were famous 
for the preparation of alloys, and skillful in the 
beating and use of gold leaf. Gilding was used 
for the temples and vessels of the gods, for vases, 
statues, coffins, and even for the dead bodies of 
their friends. Abraham, we are told, was rich 
in silver and gold as well as in cattle. The 
balance for weighing the precious metals, all 
prices being decided by weight, was very deli- 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 175 

cately adjusted. It was such a balance which 
was used by Joseph's brethren in their purchase 
of corn. It had no scales, but a bar with a hook 
to it, to which the gold was suspended in bags. The 
most common metal in use was copper, which 
was hardened by an alloy of tin so as to form 
bronze, and of this chisels and knives were made. 
It has been alleged that the properties and use 
of iron were unknown, but Sir G. Wilkinson 
pleads for its use, observing, at Thebes, butchers 
represented as sharpening their knives on their 
steels attached to their aprons, and the metal 
looking like steel from its blue color. Iron in- 
struments are not found, but this fact by no means 
determines their absence in the age of ancient 
Egypt, the rapid decomposition which takes place 
in the metal being quite sufficient to account for 
their disappearance in case any formerly existed. 
It is scarcely possible to account for the skill 
manifested by the Egyptians in cutting the 
hardest substance with bronze chisels, and though 
the use of emery powder has been referred to as 
affording an explanation, it is not sufficient for 
the purpose. 

The casting of the golden calf by Aaron and 
the Israelites exhibits skill which was derived 
from Egypt, and it is argued that Moses being 
able to burn the calf, and reduce it to powder, 



176 ANCIENT EGYPT: 

is a remarkable proof of the progress which had 
been made in the working of metals. To reduce 
gold to powder it is necessary to employ tar- 
taric acid. M. Gognet, who has written on this 
subject, suggests that instead of this substance 
Moses employed the natron, which is very com- 
mon in the neighborhood where the occurence 
took place, and when the gold was reduced and 
mixed with water it would possess no pleasant 
taste. The Israelites, who were to be punished 
for their idolatry, were made to drink of the 
nauseous beverage. There are no representa- 
tions yet discovered of the mode adopted in cast- 
ing statues, though we have this evidence of its 
early antiquity. 

The style of art among the Egyptians was 
much affected by the conventional mode of 
drawing in use amongst them, and the dread of 
innovation, especially in connection with any of 
their religious subjects. Each artist was only 
permitted to imitate closely the works of his pre- 
decessors, and a human face or an eye was repre- 
sented in exactly the same manner from age to 
age. Statues were only allowed in certain pos- 
tures of repose, which were most unfavorable for 
the development of art. Sir G. Wilkinson points 
out the age of Ramses the Great as the highest 
epoch of Egyptian art. The Egyptians were 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. lV7 

fond of painting and drawing, but they had no 
notion at all of perspective. 

In the valleys on the side of the Nile are yet 
to be seen the quarries whence the ancient 
Egyptians derived materials for their massive 
buildings, and in the pictures which have come 
down to us we have some little information as 
to the mode by which immense blocks were trans- 
ported for the same purpose. The plan repre- 
sented in the quarry at El Maasara is to place 
them on a sledge drawn by oxen on an inclined 
plane to the river. The stone was sometimes 
drawn by men who were condemned to hard la- 
bor as a punishment. Beyond a few pictures 
of this nature, we have no information as to the 
mechanical methods adopted in the removal and 
transport of the stones employed in the temples. 
Some of these were immensely large. The obe- 
lisks transported from Syene to Thebes, are from 
seventy to ninety feet in length, and the one at Kar- 
nac weighs about two hundred and ninety-seven 
tons. These obelisks are small in comparison to 
the size and weight of the colossal statues. The 
colossi in the plain of Quorneh are reckoned to 
contain each eleven thousand five hundred cubic 
feet, and a statue at the Memnonium, or rather 
the Ramsesium, weighs upwards of eight hun- 
dred and eighty-seven tons, and must have been 
12 



178 ANCIENT EGYPT! 

brought one hundred and thirty-eight miles. 
There is also the temple mentioned by Herodo- 
tus at Buto in the Delta, about which he says 
that it was brought from Elephantine, and that it 
was a monolith, one solid temple, and according 
to the most moderate calculation of the dimen- 
sions he gives of it, it is reckoned to have con- 
tained five thousand tons in weight. From these 
facts it appears almost certain that the Egyp- 
tians were in possession of mechanical knowledge 
to which the moderns have not yet attained ; and 
although ours is the age of the railroad and the 
electric telegraph, the ancient wisdom of Egypt 
probably embraced secrets which yet remain hid- 
den from us. 

Bellows and siphons are amongst the inven- 
tions with which Egypt was familiar. The latter 
it is said were used for tasting wine, and for 
draining and watering the lands. 

The use and practice of medicine was well 
understood. Each branch of the medical pro- 
fession was restricted to those who professed it. 
One took charge of diseases of the eye, another 
of those of the bowels, and another of those of 
the head. Accoucheurs were mostly women. 
Doctors were paid by the state, and care was 
taken that their patients should not die under 
their hands from neglect or improper treatment. 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 179 

The majority of diseases were held to proceed 
from indigestion and excessive eating, and med- 
ical advice consisted principally in attention to 
diet and regimen. Physicians and drugs were 
numerous, and the reputation of Egyptian skill 
in the healing art extended to foreign nations. 
When medicine failed, they had recouise to 
magic, dreams, and religious vows, and did not 
forget, on recovery, to present offerings at the 
shrines of the gods, often in ivory or precious 
metals, of the limbs which had been disabled or 
diseased. 

As dress, the Egyptians, especially the lower 
order, wore a sort of apron or kilt about the 
loins, and sometimes short drawers. Over these 
the higher classes cast a dress of linen, reach- 
ing to the ankles, having large sleeves, and se- 
cured by a girdle. The princes had a badge at 
the side of the head descending to the shoulder, 
and ending in gold fringe. The king wore the 
crown of the upper or lower country, or the 
pshent, the union of the two, and it was not 
unusual for the crown to be worn even in battle. 
The Egyptians shaved the head, and wore wigs 
of various sorts, and to have the hair of the 
head and the beard Ions; was a si^n of careless- 
ness and mourning. The priests shaved the 
whole body every three days, as before men- 



180 ancient egypt: 

tioned. In shaving the heads of young children, 
the locks at the front, sides, and back, were 
often left, and according to Herodotus, the 
weight of hair cut off was given with an equal 
quantity of silver to the temple of one of the 
gods. Young children were decorated with the 
bulla, or charm, supposed to defend the wearer 
from the evil eye, and to prompt him to acts of 
goodness and virtue. The sandals varied in 
form, some being turned up at the end like our 
skates. They were made of papyrus stalks or 
palm leaves, or of leather lined with cloth. 
The dresses of the women were the loose robe 
or skirt reaching to the ankles, and over this a 
petticoat fastened to a girdle : the petticoat was 
of great variety of pattern, according to the 
rank and taste of the wearer. Ladies wore 
their hair long and plaited, bound by an orna- 
mental fillet. "Rings, earrings, signets, armlets, 
anklets, bracelets, and necklaces, were plentiful, 
though there is no proof of the custom of the wed- 
ding-ring. The ladies wore combs, stained their 
eyelids and eyebrows, used pins and needles, 
and were fond of pretty round mirrors made of 
metal. 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 181 



CHAPTER VII. 

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BIBLE, AS DERIVED FROM 
THE EGYPTIAN MONUMENTS. 

In the course of the preceding chapters, many 
instances cannot fail to have presented them- 
selves to the reader, in which the narrative of 
the Scriptures receives valuable illustration from 
the events of Egyptian history, or the manners 
and customs of the people. A very large por- 
tion of the earlier books of the Old Testament 
is intimately connected with Egypt, and some 
knowledge of the country and of its inhabitants 
is absolutely necessary, before we can under- 
stand the references and details which the Pen- 
tateuch more especially contains. Next to the 
land of Palestine, Egypt holds the most con- 
spicuous place in the volume of inspiration ; and 
the more we become acquainted with the exist- 
ing memorials of its ancient condition, the more 
shall we admire the simplicity, truthfulness, 
and beauty of the Biblical records. In this 
chapter, it is proposed to present some instances 
of agreement with the Scriptures from the 
materials which Egyptian researches have given 
to us. 

The first use to be made of these materials, 



182 ANCIENT EGYPT : 

is to remark the strong corroboration they afford 
of the genuineness and authenticity of the books 
of Moses. The statements which these books 
contain about Egypt could not have been fur- 
nished except by one who had been in Egypt, 
and had lived and taken a part in the very 
scenes which he so vividly and accurately de- 
scribes. Modern researches thus enable us to 
apply to the books of Moses the same kind of 
proof with which we have been long familiar in 
reference to the Gospels of the New Testa- 
ment. By the observations of modern travelers, 
it has been plainly shown that the writers of the 
Gospels were men who belonged to the country 
and race of which they bear testimony. By 
many minute and indescribable touches in their 
narratives, by local and other correspondences 
which cannot be the result of artifice, we have 
additional evidence of their fidelity and truth. 
Similar verifications of the early books of the 
Old Testament were in some degree wanting for 
a long time, and it did not appear likely that 
they would ever be obtained. The distance of 
time at which the books were originally pub- 
lished, and the still greater distance at which 
many of the events took place which they re- 
cord, presented, apparently, insuperable obsta- 
cles. In an age, however, of skepticism and 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 183 

infidelity, Divine Providence has exposed to in- 
vestigation the memorials of Egypt. These, 
after the lapse of many thousand years, are be- 
fore us, and the scenes of its history, engraven 
and sculptured on its monuments, invite com- 
parison with the writings of Moses. 

On the occurrence of these enlarged opportu- 
nities of knowledge, some of the enemies of Di- 
vine revelation became at once earnest, if possi- 
ble, to make out a case against the sacred records, 
and to persuade men that those who wrote them 
lived at a much later period of the world's his- 
tory than the date commonly ascribed to their 
writings, and that these were the skillful fabrica- 
tions of comparatively modern Jews. Every 
apparent difference of statement or expression 
between the monuments and the books was 
siezed upon with delight, and pressed hastily 
into the service ; doubts were abundantly sug- 
gested, and difficulties created and magnified, to 
sustain the favorite hypothesis. It was forgot- 
ten, that where the witnesses are wholly inde- 
pendent, a substantial agreement in their testi- 
mony, though attended with minute differences 
in detail, is more satisfactory to the person who 
cautiously and scrupulously weighs the evidence 
than a correspondence so universal and complete 
as to suggest the idea of collusion, Mere varie- 



184 ANCIENT EGYPT : 

ties of expression were construed as absolute 
contradictions, and omissions as certain negations, 
in order that it might be shown that Moses was 
never in Egypt, and that he knew nothing about 
the country. It has happened in this, as in 
other instances, that some of the apparently 
most striking difficulties have, on prolonged in- 
vestigation, given forth a testimony exactly the 
reverse of the purpose for which they were at 
first examined, and have strongly corroborated, 
rather than subverted, the authority of Moses. 
It was hastily said, that suspicion must attach 
to the Mosaic records, because the author so 
often referred to the buildings of the Egyptians 
as of brick, whereas they were usually of hewn 
stone — an objection which could only arise from 
ignorance or dishonest perverseness, in the face 
of the many testimonies to the fact, that build- 
ings with brick were exceedingly common in 
Egypt. In the forty-fifth chapter of Genesis, 
Abraham is said to have received camels, sheep, 
and asses from the Egyptians — a statement said 
to be inconsistent with the fact that such ani- 
mals did not exist in the country. Now of 
these three kinds of animals there is evidence 
that sheep and asses were found in Egypt, and 
nothing to prove the absence of camels but 
the fact that at present no certain traces of the 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 185 

animal exist on the monuments. The passage 
to which, in this instance, the opponents of Di- 
vine revelation appeal, as illustrating Moses's 
ignorance, is one of those which is easily con- 
verted into a very formidable weapon against 
them. In the enumeration of the gifts of Abra- 
ham, no mention is made by the narrator of 
horses, for which Egypt was justly famous. The 
omission can only be accounted for by the fact, 
that horses, although common in Egypt, were 
not yet in use among the Israelites, and did not 
come into employment till a later age — that 
of the kings of Israel. The inference is plain 
in favor of the age of the Mosaic account, and 
of the genuineness of the narrative which it 
records. If the book had been written when 
horses were common in Palestine, horses would 
naturally have been mentioned, and the omis- 
sion of them is one of those verifications of the 
truthfulness of the history, which strengthen 
the faith and animate the courage of the be- 
liever. 

In the wind by which the seven thin ears 
were blasted, the locusts were brought into 
Egypt, and the waves of the Red Sea rolled 
back at the bidding of Jehovah, an instance of 
supposed ignorance has been discovered. The 
east wind, it is said, has been transferred from 



186 ANciExi Egypt : 

Palestine, whereas in Egypt the south wind is 
that which is most destructive, and would occa- 
sion these phenomena. The reply to the ob- 
jection is, what would suggest itself on a mo- 
ment's reflection, that the wind probably was 
the south-east ; and whilst this would bear the 
designation the east wind, being as much east 
as south, it was the wind that would answer for 
these purposes, and certainly prevailed in Egypt. 
Another difficulty is the existence of the vine 
in Egypt, which is supposed in the dream of the 
chief butler, and which it is boldly said, on the 
strength of a passage in Plutarch, was not 
known in Egypt till a later age — the reign of 
Psammeticus. The monuments can be appealed 
to in this instance, and between the two disa- 
greeing authorities they decide unequivocally in 
favor of the Bible. So, also, when it is ob- 
jected that the sac-redness of animals prevented 
the use of animal food, of which we read in the 
book of Genesis, the monuments give us deline- 
ations of feasts and kitchen scenes, unanswera- 
bly confirming the sacred record. From the 
employment of bronze instruments among the 
Egyptians, even from the earliest ages, a case 
has been attempted to be made out against the 
statement that Tubal Cain was the father of all 
workers in iron, and to show that its us^ did 



IIS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 187 

not arise till a much later age. The answer to 
such an objection is, that there is no proof that 
the Egyptians did not use iron. Long after 
iron was known, implements continued to be 
made of bronze, from the great facility in work- 
ing it. The obelisks and hieroglyphics would 
scarcely have been cut, or the pyramids built, as 
Herodotus himself suggests, without knowledge 
of the use of iron. And lastly, there are repre- 
sentations on the walls of Thebes which have 
the appearance of being those of steel. So 
that, in this as in previous instances, objections 
are found on investigation to be utterly frivol- 
ous. The reader will find reasoning such as 
that of which examples have been given, in use 
amongst various classes of society, more or less 
tending to undermine reverence for, and confi- 
dence in, the sacred Scriptures. He is exhorted, 
however, not to be dismayed by the appearance 
of strength in the arguments, or fairness in the 
manner in which they are put. They will be 
found, on examination, not to weigh one feather 
in comparison with the overwhelming testimony, 
which assures us of the Divine origin and au- 
thority of those Scriptures, which are able to 
make us wise unto salvation through faith which 
is in Christ Jesus. 

The interesting and affecting history of Jo- 



188 AXCIEXT EGYPT : 

seph, as it is contained in the Bible, receives 
many pleasant and valuable illustrations from the 
Egyptian monuments. Slaves were procured 
for Egypt, not only in war, but also in trade 
with other nations, and Joseph became an arti- 
cle of merchandise in the hands of Arabian 
merchants. The buyer of the youthful slave 
was Potiphar, chief of Pharaoh's body-guard, 
and one of the officers of his court. In paint- 
ings and in battle scenes, this kind of officer 
may be seen in attendance upon his sovereign, 
and he is always represented as a person of im- 
portance. Potiphar's licentious wife plotted the 
seduction, and then the imprisonment and death 
of Joseph, and many representations of the 
Egyptian women give us an equally bad idea of 
their character, and prove that in Egypt the 
restraints on the females of the household were 
not those which prevailed generally in the east- 
ern world. The situation which Joseph held in 
the house of Potiphar was that of steward, and 
in the tombs of Beni Hassan this kind of domes- 
tic officer may be seen discharging his duties, 
and overlooking the domestic slaves. In other 
pictures the Egyptians carry their baskets on 
their heads, in accordance with the custom 
alluded to by the chief baker of Pharaoh, in his 
account of his dream. In the kine which came 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 189 

up, as beheld by Pharaoh in his dream, out of 
the Nile, we have ideas thoroughly Egyptian in 
form, and the river is referred to as the source of 
plenty or starvation to the whole land. The magi- 
cians were a wonder-working class of people, well 
known in ancient and modern Egypt, and they 
make their appearance and take their part seve- 
ral times in connection with the narrative of the 
Pentateuch. It has already been mentioned, 
how careful the Egyptians were to wash and 
shave their persons, and we read that Joseph 
duly shaved himself before going in to Pha- 
raoh. On his elevation, he was clothed with 
the garments of byssus, or fine linen, highly es- 
teemed in Egypt, and only appropriated to 
those of high rank. He had a necklace of 
gold, similar representations of which may be 
seen in the pictures of the tombs ; and he was 
married to the daughter of Potiphera, a name 
not wanting on the monuments. This Potiphera 
was high-priest of Heliopolis, and occupied a 
very exalted position in the state. The marriage 
was effected under the direct sanction of the king, 
who, as high-priest as well as king, exercised 
authority over the priesthood. If it be thought 
improbable that a foreigner such as Joseph 
should ally himself with the daughter of so high 
a family, it is to be remembered that Joseph had 



190 ANCIENT EGYPT: 

become naturalized in Egypt, and there is evi- 
dence from the monuments that illustrious stran- 
gers were sometimes admitted into the ranks of 
the Egyptian priesthood. 

Of the labors rendered by Joseph in collect- 
ing the produce of the country during the years 
of plenty, we may form a clear idea from the 
many representations given us of vast granaries 
in which corn was stored. A man, called a reg- 
istrar of bushels, takes an account of the number 
of bushels brought to him by another man, who 
is engaged in measuring. The famine in Egypt 
arose, as famines have been known to do, from 
the diminution of the rain falling in Abyssinia, 
and the consequent inadequate inundation of the 
Me — a cause of famine which would be felt se- 
verely throughout all the country. The scene 
of entertainment, in which Joseph eats sepa- 
rately from the other Egyptians, is in accord- 
ance with the principle of caste, to the highest 
class of which Joseph belonged ; and the posi- 
tion of the guests, that of sitting at table, 
though not oriental or patriarchal, is verified 
from the Egyptian monuments. Of the migra- 
tion of the family of Jacob into Egypt, an illus- 
tration presents itself in the scene already al- 
luded to in a preceding chapter, which is de- 
picted in a tomb at Beni Hassan, and which, if 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 191 

it does not actually relate to the arrival of the 
Israelites, as many suppose, represents a very 
similar occurrence. A scribe appears present- 
ing an account of the arrival of the strangers to 
one of the chief officers of the king. Then 
they are introduced, and two of them bring 
presents of the wild goat and the gazelle. 
Armed men follow, leading an ass, bearing pan- 
niers with children, and followed by a boy and 
four women. Then follows another ass laden, 
and men carrying musical instruments. The 
whole scene is strikingly in harmony with the 
narrative of Genesis, though some interpret it of 
captives bringing tribute. 

The brethren of Joseph, we are told, were not 
permitted to settle in Egypt, because of the 
hatred of the Egyptians to a shepherd race. 
Supposing that the Israelites arrived, as we be- 
lieve, during the shepherd dynasty, this decision 
proceeded from a wise policy, not to exasperate 
the resident and native Egyptians by an offence 
against their prevailing prejudices ; and of the 
hatred of the Egyptians to the shepherds, the 
mode of depicting them on the monuments 
presents ample evidence. The land of Goshen, 
which was assigned as the dwelling-place of 
Jacob and his children, was the border-province 
of Egvpt, where they would not come into im- 



192 A X C IE X T EGYPT : 

mediate contact with the more prejudiced Egyp- 
tians, and the frontier of which they might guard 
from all incursions of hostile neighbors, as some 
recompense for the privilege of holding it. It 
is the territory to the east of the Tanitic mouth 
of the Nile, towards the isthmus of Suez and the 
Arabian desert, affording in certain places excel- 
lent pasture-ground for cattle, and rendered very 
fruitful from its share in the inundation of the 
Nile. In this land were situated the treasure- 
cities of Pharaoh, Pithom and Ramses. Pithom, 
or Patumos, was on the east side of the Pelusiac 
arm of the Nile, not far from the entrance of 
the canal which unites the Nile with the Red 
Sea. Ramses, according to the interpretation 
of the Septuagint, has been identified with Hero- 
polis, which, according to Champollion, lay be- 
tween the Pelusiac arm of the Nile and the Bit- 
ter Lake. Both these cities were fortified, ready 
to oppose any hostile invasion of the Egyptian 
frontier, and both of them were situated in the 
land of Goshen. 

In the arrangements which took place in the 
famine of Egypt, under the administration of 
Joseph, the land was purchased by him for 
Pharaoh, and subsequently let out on lease to 
the occupants, with the agreement that all, with 
the exception of the priests, whose land remained 



ITS MONUMENTS AND IIISTORT. 193 

untouched, should pay a fifth part of the annual 
produce. In the accounts of profane historians, 
and by the sculptures, the king, the priests, and 
the military men, are the land-owners, and the 
occupants till the land and render tribute for 
the privilege of cultivation. The priests and 
military men depending on the state for their 
provision, would not be compelled to sell their 
lands ; and whilst the land of the other land- 
owners would merge under the administration 
of Joseph into that of the king, the tenure would 
remain exactly as we find it. 

When Jacob died, his body was ordered to be 
embalmed by the physicians of Joseph. Physi- 
cians were of various classes, and Joseph would 
have in his establishment a considerable number. 
By some of them the process of embalming was 
performed, which afterwards came to be assigned 
to a distinct class of men. The age of Joseph 
was one in which the particular class of men had 
not arisen, and the business was intrusted to the 
skillful officers of his household. The mourning 
for Jacob, as described in Genesis, is in accor- 
dance with the custom of the Egyptians on the 
decease of their men of rank ; and so also is the 
funeral procession, when Joseph, the servants of 
Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the 
elders of the land of E^ypt. and all the house 
18 



194 A&CIENT EGYPT: 

of Joseph, and his brethren, go up to bury his 
father. When Joseph himself dies, his body is 
embalmed and placed in a wooden coffin. Wood 
is used in this instance rather than stone, because 
of the convenience of removal, according to the or- 
ders given by Joseph to his brethren. That it was 
the custom of the Egyptians to bury in wooden 
coffins is shown by the discovery of the wooden 
coffin of the king Mykerinus, the builder of 
the third pyramid, which coffin is now deposited 
in the British Museum. After the death of 
Joseph, the Israelites rapidly multiplied, and 
awakened the jealousy of the Pharaoh who 
knew not Joseph, and whom we have already, in 
a previous chapter, pointed out as Amosis, or one 
of his immediate successors. It is quite in har- 
mony with the practice of the Egyptian princes, 
to believe that they treated the Jews with much 
oppression and cruelty, and embittered their 
lives by the toilsome labor of making bricks 
without straw in a climate which was very hot. 
A portion of chopped straw is found in some of 
the bricks of Egypt, though sometimes it is ex- 
ceedingly small. The diminution of the quantity 
of straw, and the difficulty of procuring it, in- 
creased the labor and hardship of constructing 
the same quantity and quality of brick. On a 
tomb of Thebes is a drawing, which Rosellini 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 195 

affirms to be a representation of the Hebrews 
engaged in making bricks. The following is 
Rosellini's account of it : — " Of the laborers some 
are employed in transporting the clay in vessels, 
some in intermingling it with straw, others are 
taking the bricks out of the form and placing them 
in rows ; while others, with a piece of wood upon 
their backs and ropes on each side, carry away 
the bricks already burned or dried. Their dis- 
similarity to the Egyptians appears at the first 
view ; their complexion, physiognomy, and beard 
permit us not to be mistaken in supposing them 
to be Hebrews. They wear at the hips the 
apron which is common among the Egyptians, 
and there is also represented as in use among 
them a kind of short trowsers. Among the He- 
brews, four Egyptians, very distinguishable by 
their mien, figure, and color, are seen ; two of 
them, one sitting and the other standing, have 
each a stick in his hand, ready to fall upon two 
other Egyptians, who are here represented like 
the Hebrews, one of them bearing on his shoulder 
a vessel of clay, and the other returning from the 
transportation of brick, carrying his empty ves- 
sel to get a new load. The tomb belonged to a 
high court officer of the king, Rochscere, and 
was made in the time of Thothmes IV., the fifth 
king of the eighteenth dynasty." The existence 



196 ANCIENT EGYPT : 

of this painting, if it can be clearly proved to 
represent the Hebrews, is a most interesting 
illustration of the Scriptural history. The state 
of the picture demonstrates it to be of very high 
antiquity, and its agreement with the narrative 
of the Bible establishes an equal and indepen- 
dent antiquity for the writing in which the nar- 
rative is found. 

When Moses is born, and has, in obedience to 
the cruel law of Pharaoh, to be exposed on the 
Nile, his mother makes an ark of papyrus, smears 
it over with bitumen and pitch, and places the 
child in it. A great many articles were made 
of this papyrus, boats among the rest, and bitu- 
men was used very extensively in embalming. 
The daughter of Pharaoh went down to the Nile 
to bathe, and there found the child floating on 
the surface of the water. A picture of an Egyp- 
tian lady of rank bathing, in company with her 
attendants, is found on the monuments. 

In the tombs of private persons, many of 
those valuable ornaments are found, such as the 
Egyptians gave the Israelites on the occasion of 
their departure. This transaction, owing to the 
form of our English translation, is often under- 
stood as if the Israelites committed a fraud on 
the Egyptians, but of this there is no evidence. 
In the Hebrew, the word translated " borrowed" 



ITS MONUMEKTS AND HISTORY. 197 

means " asked," and the word " spoiled," " de- 
parted laden with" — a mode of rendering which, 
while it is grammatically accurate, is quite in 
accordance with the circumstances, and is sus- 
tained by the testimony of Josephus. The jew- 
els of silver and gold were the current coin of 
the realm, and precious ornaments, and these 
were freely presented by the terrified Egyptians 
to the Hebrews. 

Before the arrogant oppressor of his people, 
Moses appears bearing his rod, which is his com- 
panion throughout his intercourse with Pharaoh 
and his journey in the wilderness. The nobles 
of Egypt are represented bearing a stick, 
from three to six feet long ; and the magicians 
of Egypt, as recorded in the narrative, carry 
rods. 

The events by which God delivered his peo- 
ple from Egypt are always so referred to in the 
inspired volume, as to preclude our regarding 
them as other than absolutely miraculous, and 
as a distinct testimony to the power and wisdom 
of the Supreme Jehovah, in opposition to all the 
pretensions of the worshipers of idols. These 
events have under one aspect of them no con- 
nection with the ordinary occurrences of the 
world, but belong to those which are accom- 
plished by the immediate agency of the Supreme 



198 ANCIENT EGYPT: 

Being. Any other view of them involves a de- 
nial of the truth of the record in which they are 
so often spoken of as miraculous, and totally fails 
to account for ten such fearful phenomena hap- 
pening in rapid succession. Whilst, however, 
of a miraculous kind, the plagues of Egypt were, 
for wise reasons, somewhat similar to the chas- 
tisements which ordinarily afflicted the land, and 
they are illustrated by knowledge of the calami- 
ties to which Egypt was exposed. The God 
who works miracles is the Author and Governor 
of creation, and the more visible and conspicuous 
proofs of his agency will correspond with his 
continual and more silent operations. His in- 
terference for the rescue of his people from the 
land of Egypt, was in accordance with the con- 
dition and circumstances of the inhabitants of the 
land, and thereby adapted to make a powerful 
and vivid impression on their minds. Aaron's 
rod was changed into a serpent, and the magi- 
cians could imitate the change, and produce the 
appearance of a similar miracle ; but to show 
the superiority of the power on the side of the 
Hebrew prophet, his rod devours the rods of his 
enemies. Other signs less harmless and more 
significant follow. The waters of the Nile, the 
great river of Egypt, are changed into blood, so 
that the Egyptians cannot drink of it. Every 



ITS MONUMENTS AKD HISTORY. 199 

year, at the beginning of the inundation, the river 
acquires a red color ; but on this occasion it 
is more red than ever, and has qualities which 
hitherto have been unknown. The fish die in it, 
and the river stinks. The same loathsomeness 
pervades the streams, the rivers, the ponds, and 
the streams of water, and all this proceeding 
from the stretching out of the prophet's rod. 
The purifying vessels of stone and of wood are 
useless to purify it, and when Pharaoh prepares 
to render homage to his beloved Nile, it is turn- 
ed into loathsomeness, in obedience to the man- 
date of the servant of the God of the Hebrews. 
In the second plague of the frogs, and also in 
the third and fourth of the gnats and flies, use is 
made of the natural productions of the waters 
of Egypt, though care is taken to demonstrate 
their subjection to the control of Jehovah, in 
opposition to all the enchantments of the magi- 
cians. On the occurrence of the fourth plague, 
Pharaoh yields so far as to confer with Moses on 
sacrificing to his God, and proposes that he shall 
do this within the boundaries of the land of 
Egypt. Moses refuses, by referring to the cus- 
tom of Egypt with regard to animal sacrifices. 
He cannot, he says, sacrifice animals in Egypt, 
for the Egpytians hold them to be sacred ; or if 
the word abomination in the text is to be under- 



200 ANCIENT EGiTL'T : 

stood in the English sense, then his meaning is, 
that he cannot sacrifice animals which the Egyp- 
tians consider unclean and unfit for sacrifice. The 
fifth plague follows, in the destruction of the cat- 
tle by the breaking out of a grevious murrain, in 
the spread of which Jehovah puts a difference 
between the cattle of the Hebrews and the Egyp- 
tians. The sixth plague was that of the boils, by 
which even the magicians were themselves af- 
fected — a severe and painful disease of the skin, 
The seventh was an unequaled tempest, smiting 
the flax and barley, two most important articles 
of Egyptian produce, while it was exposed in the 
field. Locusts, from which Egypt sometimes 
suffers severely, constitute the eighth plague. 
They were brought up by an east wind across 
the Red Sea, and devoured every green herb 
and produce that the hail had left standing, and 
the land of the Nile became a desert, under the 
stroke of the mighty hand of the God of Jacob, 
Then came a preternatural darkness of three 
days, of which an analogy has been found in the 
chamsin — but no chamsin ever equaled this ; yet 
the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. 
Then fell the tenth and most fearful stroke — the 
death of the first-born by a pestilence which 
walked in darkness, for all the first-born of Egypt 
died in one night. Liable as Egypt has always 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 201 

been to the ravages of the plague, no visitation 
was ever so severe and so humiliating as this. 
In the night, the voice of Pharaoh was heard to 
the messengers of Jehovah, " Rise up, and get 
you forth from among my people." 

Strikingly as these occurrences are, through- 
out, in harmony with the features of the country 
and the manners of its inhabitants, their severity, 
the mode of their arrival and continuance, and 
the rapidity of their succession, demonstrate them 
to have been the actions of Him who, with a high 
hand and an outstretched arm, led forth his peo- 
ple like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. 
The tidings of these marvelous events must have 
spread far and wide amongst the heathen nations. 
They learned with astonishment that there was 
a God worshiped by the Hebrew race, who had 
confounded the ancient deities of Egypt, before 
whom, even in their own country, and in the pres- 
ence of their worshipers, their authority had been 
defied and they themselves proved to be no gods. 
The history of these wonders descended to suc- 
ceeding generations ; generals of mighty armies 
were conscious of sudden misgivings in the pres- 
ence of that people whose God was Jehovah ; 
and by the recollection of these illustrious tokens 
of his goodness and power to save, prophets and 
reformers in after a^es awakened the slumber- 



202 ANCIENT EGYPT : 

ing conscience, and turned the stubborn heart of 
a disobedient and ungrateful people. 

The construction of the Jewish tabernacle il- 
lustrates the degree of skill in many arts which 
the Israelites acquired during their residence in 
Egypt. Precise directions were given by Jeho- 
vah as to the mode by which his worship should 
be conducted, and he had already, during their 
residence in the land of bondage, prepared them 
to carry out his instructions. Some of the ma- 
terials of which the tabernacle was formed were 
very costly, and not easily procured by them 
during their wanderings in the wilderness. These 
were brought with them out of Egypt, and the 
time of their residence in Goshen, and employ- 
ment in Egyptian works, was amply sufficient 
to render them thoroughly acquainted with all 
the methods of Egyptian art and manufacture. 
The precious stones, which were set in gold on 
the ephod and breastplate of the high-priest, 
were engraved by means of the skill acquired by 
them in Egypt. Bezaleel, to whom God had 
given ability in the preparation of stones for set- 
ting, and to devise curious works in gold, silver, 
and brass, may have perfected his talent by ob- 
servation and practice in Egyptian manufactories ; 
and many ornaments of purest gold yet remain 
which demonstrate the skill of the Egyptians in 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 203 

the working of that metal. The overlaying the 
ark of the testimony and the boards of the taber- 
nacle, the interweaving the threads of gold into 
the high-priest's ephod, and the wreathing of 
golden chains for fastening the breastplate to the 
ephod, were all works for which lessons had been 
given in Egypt, and which had now, under Di- 
vine direction, to be accomplished. The quan- 
tity of golden ornaments, " nose-rings, ear-rings, 
signet-rings, and pendants,'' which were contribu- 
ted towards the sanctuary, corresponds with the 
abundance of such valuables displayed in the 
paintings, and existing as ornaments to mum- 
mies. The brazen laver was made of the brazen 
mirrors contributed by the women. In the man- 
ufacture of the sanctuary, the joiner and cabi- 
net-maker worked the wood of the acacia, with 
which they were familiar, and which was the 
only kind known in the desert. According to 
Rosellini, two thousand years before the Chris- 
tian era the saw was in the hands of the cabinet- 
makers. The covering of the tabernacle was to 
be goats' skins, with rams' skins, colored red, and 
then over these another kind of leather. Of the 
preparation of leather by the Egyptians, we have 
treated in a previous chapter. The leathern 
straps attached to the mummies demonstrate 
their skill ; and in the Louvre, at Paris, is an 



204 ANCIENT EGYPT \ 

Egyptian harp, the wood of which is covered 
with a kind of green morocco, cut in the form 
of the blossom of the lotus. 

In the tombs of Beni Hassan, there are pic- 
tures of the method of preparing and twisting 
the thread for the manufacture of the fine linen, 
or byssus, of which the priests' garments were 
composed. The yarn was beaten with clubs, 
and the thread boiled in water, so as to soften 
it. Arsinoe, Pelusium, and Alexandria, were 
celebrated for their weaving, which was princi- 
pally done by men, and not by women. In 
agreement with this last fact, the preparation of 
the cloth for the sanctuary, and of the robes of 
the priests, is intrusted throughout to the care 
of men. The women did the spinning, and they 
brought of the purple which they had spun ; 
the dyeing of this fabric taking place before the 
weaving. Patterns in different colors were also 
worked by the loom, besides those which were 
dyed. The sails of boats among the Egyptians 
were embroidered with pleasant devices and em- 
blems. The outer garment of the high-priest 
was to have a border round about the opening 
for the head, of woven work, like the opening 
of a habergeon, so that it be not rent. Linen 
habergeons, or corselets, are those alluded to, 
and for these the Egyptians were famous. The 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 205 

instructions given about the holy ointment, and 
the mode of its preparation, remind us of the 
Egyptian skill in unguents and perfumes. In 
the description of this ointment occurs the men- 
tion of the " hin," as a measure ; it is supposed 
to be borrowed from the Egyptian language, and 
is only found in the Pentateuch and in Ezekiel's 
description of the temple. 

The conduct of the Israelites, during their 
murmurings and disobedience in the desert, is 
represented as proceeding from recollections of 
Egypt, which strictly correspond with the facts. 
When they began to murmur against Moses, one 
grand complaint was, " We remember the fish, 
which we did eat in Egypt freely." Num. xi, 5. 
The amount of fish in Egypt was most astonish- 
ing, and it constituted a large part of the food 
of the common population. Cucumbers and 
melons were also abundant, and the Israelites 
longed for these amidst the sands of the desert. 
Onions and garlic, which are mentioned, were 
common articles of food. The former were not 
so strong and unpleasant as those of Europe, 
and did not moisten the eyes of those who par- 
took of them, but were large and sweet, and 
very cheap and common. The making of the 
golden calf is only to be explained by a refer- 
ence to the Egyptian god Apis, and the dancing 



206 ANCIENT EGYPT \ 

and sensuality correspond with the nature of 
his festivals. The people of Israel had been 
already too much associated with such service, 
and in the absence of Moses they lapsed into 
their former idolatry, and contributed the golden 
rings which were in the ears of their wives, of 
their sons, and of their daughters, that Aaron 
might make them a calf. 

In the care which is enjoined as to obedience 
to the Divine commands, the Israelites are re- 
quired to write them on the posts of their doors 
and on their gates — a precept reminding us of 
the custom of inscriptions around and above the 
doors of the mansions of Egypt. So, also, the 
reference made in Deut. vii, 15, to the evil dis- 
eases of Egypt, from which Jehovah assures his 
people they shall escape, recognizes Egypt as a 
country fruitful in disease ; a representation con- 
firmed by ancient and modern testimony — the 
plague, dysentery, and other complaints, taking 
their rise in Egypt, and extending to the neigh- 
boring countries. 

A comparison is instituted in Deut. xi, 10-12, 
between the land of Egypt and that of Canaan, 
which is greatly in favor of the latter, and which 
rests on facts sufficiently important to demand our 
notice. The passage reads thus : " For the land, 
whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 207 

land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where 
thou sowedst thy seed, and watered st it with thy 
foot as a garden of herbs : but the land, whither 
ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, 
and drinketh water of the rain of heaven ; a 
land which the Lord thy God careth for — the 
eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, 
from the beginning of the year even unto the 
end of the year." The reference of these words 
is to the want of rain in Egypt — a statement 
which, with no more qualification than is legiti- 
mate, is fully sustained by the facts. The dif- 
ferent surface of the lands of Canaan and 
Egypt is adverted to — the one being flat, wa- 
tered by a river ; and the other having hills and 
valleys, watered by fruitful showers from hea- 
ven : hence the labor of irrigation is felt in the 
former, but is unknown in the latter. The 
statements of the passage are full of truthful- 
ness, and show that the author was acquainted 
with the peculiarities of Egypt, and the mode 
of cultivating and irrigating the soil. The 
Egyptians affected to look with contempt on 
such countries as had no Me, and were depend- 
ent on the skies for water ; but this very condi- 
tion Moses alludes to as a blessing, since the 
people are the favorites of Jehovah, and he will 
open the windows of heaven unto them. The 



208 ANCIENT EGYPT I 

address is a wise and pious assurance to a mur- 
muring and distrustful people, of the inestima- 
ble advantages which God had prepared for his 
faithful servants, and is throughout in admira- 
ble correspondence with the physical geography 
of the two countries. 

In his " Testimony of Egypt to the Truth," 
Mr. Osburn has directed attention to various 
names which he has recognized on the Egyptian 
monuments, as belonging to several of the na- 
tions who were driven from the land of Canaan 
before the conquering Israelites. The scene in 

the tomb at Beni Hassan, to which allusion has 

* ... 

been made at an earlier page in this chapter, is 

identified by him as a picture of the Jebusites 
bringing tribute, after their conquest by the 
officer of Pharaoh to whom the tomb belonged. 
It is by deciphering the hieroglyphic that Mr. 
Osburn reads the name Jebusites. The shep- 
herds who overran Egypt are by the same 
writer supposed to be the Canaanites — the dwel- 
lers in the land of Palestine prior to the settle- 
ment of the Jews in the country given to them 
by God to possess it, and their names are redd 
on the monuments. On the temple of Karnac, 
the Amalekites, the Arvadites, who appear as 
dwellers by the sea, the Hermonites, dwellers 
in the mountains, and the Canaanites, are repre 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 200 

sented as overcome by the Egyptians. Mr. Os- 
burn succeeds in determining the identity of a 
great many towns and tribes, whose titles ap- 
pear in the hieroglyphics, connecting them with 
places and people mentioned in the Old Testa- 
ment. To his able treatise the reader is referred 
who may wish further to prosecute his inquiries 
in the matter. 

The preceding paragraphs present some speci- 
mens of the manner in which Egyptian discov- 
ery has more or less tended to verify and illus- 
trate the meaning of the earlier records of the 
Bible. No fact, it may be safely affirmed, has 
been clearly demonstrated, which is not in ac- 
cordance with the statements of the inspired 
volume, and instances of corroboration are 
highly important and numerous. Such a har- 
mony is very different from the result of a com- 
parison between the testimonies of the monu- 
ments and the records of profane historians. 
Irreconcilable contradictions and inextricable con- 
fusion, not to say positive blunders, must be 
admitted in their writings, in order by any pro- 
cess to harmonize them with the monuments. 
Whence this difference in favor of the more an- 
cient documents, which contain not suppositions 
and conjectures, but the unqualified statements 
of facts, which the discoveries of succeeding 
14 



210 ANCIENT EGYPT \ 

years only serve to establish ? Herodotus re- 
lates stories apparently for the amusement of 
his readers, and is unable to assert either their 
truth or falsehood. Moses, on the contrary, is 
ever distinct in his affirmations, and at no pains 
to present his narrative with such ambiguity as 
may defy the charge of mistake, and always 
leave room for excuse. Whence, again we in- 
quire, this difference, if it is not to be found in 
the explanation furnished by the same precious 
volume, that holy men spoke as they were 
moved by the Holy Ghost ? The simple truth 
and venerable antiquity of the Pentateuch attest 
forcibly its Divine origin, and it is connected by 
many indissoluble ties with those other writings, 
that together constitute the volume w r hich with 
appropriate emphasis we call " The Book." 
That book, or Bible, contains the revelation of 
the living God, who knoweth the end from the 
beginning, and of his Son Jesus Christ, who, 
whilst dwelling in the flesh upon the earth, did 
not hesitate to say, " Before Abraham was, I 
am." In the meaning of its pages is a wisdom 
far beyond that of Egypt or of Greece, and he 
who reads them may appropriately pray, " Open 
thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous 
things out of thy law." It is this word which 
makes known to us, the guilty children of a fallen 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 211 

race, the wonderful compassion of God in giv- 
ing his Son for our redemption — a truth which 
the Spirit of all power and wisdom applies to 
the human heart, to open it to all sanctifiying 
and gracious influences, to cleanse it from all 
impurity, and to assure it of forgiveness through 
the blood of the Redeemer. Testimonies to 
the book which records this great salvation, and 
preparation for its publication to all nations, are 
to be found abundantly in the history and an- 
tiquities of Ancient Egypt. 

In the conclusion of our short treatise, it is 
natural to remark, how very startling in modern 
times is the resurrection from their ancient 
sepulchres of the once mighty empires, first of 
Egypt, and more recently of Assyria. In the 
beginning of our histories there is a blank, which 
is usually filled up by the conjectures of the 
compilers, or by confused stories, very doubtful 
in their authority, derived from the pages of 
ancient historians. Now, however, it is proba- 
ble that the blank will be faithfully supplied. 
The inscriptions which have been discovered in 
both lands are being rapidly deciphered, and 
the combined history of the two empires will 
be found on the walls of their ancient palaces, 
and thence be transferred to our modern school- 
books. To the inhabitants of western Europe, 



212 ANCIENT EGYPT I 

at the immense distance of three or four thou- 
sand years, has been assigned the task of laying 
bare the records of the early generations of the 
world's inhabitants. The question suggests it- 
self, Will they who have discovered these testi- 
monies be themselves subject to the mouldering 
influence of time ; and will the palaces, the 
Christian temples, and the museums of London 
and Paris, be hereafter disinterred by the labors 
of future and astonished generations ? It will 
not be deemed, we hope, too fond and foolish a 
patriotism, if, amidst the transient nature of all 
earthly generations, we lay claim, on behalf $f 
the modern civilization, to a strength and per- 
manence which render it superior to that of 
Assyria and Egypt. Wherein consists the prin- 
ciple of the civilization of the nineteenth cen- 
tury ? It is to be found in the existence and 
prevalence of Christian truth, and in the efTect 
which this has had on the knowledge, virtue, 
freedom, and piety of our people. Egypt, great 
as were her resources, and magnificent as are 
her monuments, was the land of mutilated men, 
of slavery, and universal idolatry and licentious- 
ness ; its power became enervated by its vices, 
and it has departed. The hope of modern 
Christian civilization — while much of sin, it is al- 
lowed, is still found among us — consists in the 



ITS MONUMENTS AND HISTORY. 213 

intelligence, freedom, and virtue prevailing, to a 
great extent, among the people ; maintained and 
developed as these have been, and have yet to 
be, by the presence and extension of the gospel 
of Christ, and the influence of large numbers 
of his true followers. Our civilization, it is 
devoutly hoped, is not of a kind to be overcome 
by martial array, or by the incursion of barbaric 
hordes. It is the civilization of peace, rather 
than of war — of the school, rather than of the 
palace — of the printing-press, and of the elec- 
tric telegraph — and of mind, which has, by in- 
tercourse with its great Creator through his 
own revelation, obtained knowledge of the source 
of happiness, and received the impulses of un- 
dying progress. It may then be hoped, that it 
will be as permanent as the present system of 
the world itself, because, far more than the old 
civilization, it partakes of the moral and religious 
element ; and it is the holy and the true that 
God designs should be glorious and lasting. The 
oracles that foretold the degradation of Egypt, 
and the desolation of Nineveh, proclaim that 
"righteousness exalteth a nation." But while 
thus speaking of a worldly kingdom, the Chris- 
tian will estimate its glories at their right value, 
even though based on the hoped-for predomi- 
nance of gospel truth among its people. The 



214 ANCIENT EGYPT. 

present state of this earth is but a passing vision 
and at its best state but vanity. He looks for 
and desires a " better country — that is, a hea- 
venly/ ■ and to receive " a kingdom which can- 
not be moved." Heb. xi, 16 ; xii, 28. 



THE END. 



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